Local elections officials will resume the recount in Minnesota’s Senate race this week after taking a Thanksgiving break.
Fourteen of Minnesota’s 87 counties are still counting votes.
Some counties, like Ramsey and Hennepin, have been counting for weeks. Other counties, like Scott and Wright, will begin counting this week.
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie wants the recount finished by Friday. His office will then process the paperwork and any challenged ballots for review by the State Canvassing Board.
The five-member board will begin reviewing those ballots on December 16.
The number of challenged ballots is approaching 5,000, but attorneys for both campaigns say they plan to withdraw an unspecified number of ballots before the canvassing board meets.
Also, if you want a feeling for what some of those challenged ballots look like, check out the Star Tribune’s “Coleman-Franken Ballot Challenge.”
My partial results from the Star Tribune link:
Coleman 31
Franken 32
Other/Unclear 21
A lot of them were extremely clear. A lot of them had two filled in circles, with one having an x through it. It’s not clear whether the x means “cross that off, I don’t want that one” or “let me emphasize the right one by putting an x through it”.
Yeah, I had the same experience. I tended to count it where there was only one filled in bubble and that bubble had an “x” through it, but where there were two bubbles and one of them had an “x” I counted the one without the “x” through it. That’s probably an inconsistent methodology, but it does go to show how tough some of these decisions can be when you get down to it.