Counting of Olmsted County ballots is well underway this morning as the gubernatorial recount kicked off. Statewide, election officials will count 2.1 million ballots by hand. Here in Olmsted County, they will go through 55,671 ballots and hope to wrap up the recount by 9 p.m. tonight.
Election officials sported blue shirts with "election judge" in white on the sleeves. A volunteer for DFLer Mark Dayton's campaign and one from Republican Tom Emmer's campaign are sat at each table watching judges sort and count the votes. They can challenge ballots if they think there is a question about who the voter intended to cast a ballot for and those challenged ballots will be sent to the state. Prior to the recount, Dayton lead Emmer by 8,775 votes. That is less than one half of one percent of the total votes cast, which automatically triggers a recount under state law.
Mark Krupski, the county's Director of Property Records and Licensing, said so far things are going smoothly. They have 20,000 less ballots to count this time compared to the 2008 U.S. Senate race recount. As for the cost of the recount, he said he estimates the total price tag will be $20,000. The state chips in 3 cents per ballot for a total of $1,670 leaving county taxpayers to foot the rest of the bill.
