Election

ST. PAUL (AP) ― As the recount in Minnesota's U.S. Senate race began here Wednesday, one volunteer judge asked the city election director what to do if she spotted a questionable ballot and no one else did.

"I don't think that's likely," election director Cindy Reichert said, waving a hand at a bevy of watchdogs encircling the counting table. "I think at least one of these eight eyes will see it, too."

Around the state, election officials began their review of nearly 2.9 million ballots under intense scrutiny from Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken. With national Democrats within striking distance of a filibuster-proof majority, the stakes are high.

The secretary of state's first look at recount figures Wednesday night showed that nearly 16 percent of ballots were recounted on the first day, with 221 challenges statewide. Coleman helpers challenged nine more votes than Franken's.

Overall, the secretary of state's figures showed Franken slicing into Coleman's pre-recount lead by 43 votes.

But many counties that were supposed to start counting Wednesday reported no results to the secretary of state. Several counties that didn't finish their recounts offered incomplete results.

Seven counties that completed their recount reported no change in vote totals, though some ballots had been challenged. In eight others that completed their recount, totals for both Coleman and Franken fell.

Before the recount began in Minneapolis, several representatives from each campaign met in a circle and shook each others' hands, like basketball captains.

Coleman's volunteers were looking for ballots "where voter intent is unclear," said Pat Shortridge, the lead Coleman volunteer in Minneapolis. A Franken campaign spokeswoman said his volunteers had the same mission.

At the main Ramsey County tally site in St. Paul, county elections director Joe Mansky laid out the task and the ground rules before the sorting began: 30,000 ballots to count each day, or one every five seconds for each counter. No one but county election employees or election judges may touch the ballots. No food or drink, no talking.

The Minnesota recount is required under state law because the votes cast for Coleman and Franken differed by less than one-half of 1 percent. The incumbent Coleman's 215-vote lead at the outset of the recount translates to eight-thousandths of a point.

Mansky said counting would take place six hours a day. "There is a limited amount of time that you can count or pile ballots without getting a little crazy," he said.

Once the counting began, things got tedious pretty fast. Workers plowed through thick stacks of ballots, sorting them into a series of piles.
For most ballots, the voter's intention was indisputable.

But at the main counting sites in both Minneapolis and St. Paul, the campaign observers seemed to err on the side of challenging lots of ballots -- most citing "distinguishing marks," a term in state law that was being applied to ballots with even the slightest blemish.

"I didn't see any ballot here today that I suspect the state canvassing board would uphold a challenge to. Not one," Mansky said.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, stopping to greet recount workers in Ramsey County, said he expected the number of challenged ballots forwarded to the canvassing board would be "very small."

Still, the challenge process sparked a few minutes of confusion at the Minneapolis site, a city-owned warehouse where ballots from all of the city's 131 precincts were counted. Officials there realized not long after starting that the campaigns could issue a challenge even if a distinguishing mark fell on the other side of the ballot.

"We started over. Fortunately we weren't far into it," Reichert said.

With the teams of campaign volunteers and a throng of reporters and cameramen, Reichert was forced several times to plead for quiet and calm.

"There's such a din in here. It's hard for the judges to concentrate," she told the assembled group at one point.

A volunteer observer for Coleman in Ramsey County was asked to step out of the recount room when he became loud while raising questions about the total number of votes being counted from one box; nearby election officials said he was distracting them. He later returned to the room.

Things proceeded much more smoothly in tiny Norman County in western Minnesota, where workers finished recounting their ballots by 12:45 p.m. The final tally was unchanged from the first count: Franken 1,576, Coleman 1,334.

"I'm tickled pink that it's over," said County Auditor Rick Munter.

Ballot judge Diane Littlefield of Fertile said helping with the recount made her feel like part of history, "as corny as it sounds."

More immediate than the history books, Minnesota's race looms large in the broader Washington, D.C., power struggle. Depending on another undecided contest in Georgia, the Minnesota outcome could determine if Democrats attain a 60-seat majority that would enable them to overcome Republican filibusters.

The race grew in significance Tuesday when Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican in Senate history, narrowly lost his re-election bid in Alaska. His defeat by Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich gives Democrats 58 seats, when two independents who align with Democrats are included.

In all, 49 of 107 recount sites -- some county, and some city -- began their work on Wednesday. Each site is required to finish their work and report by Dec. 5; a state canvassing board will take up their results, and make rulings on disputed ballots, beginning Dec. 16. Litigation could drag a final resolution well into 2009.

Both campaigns were warning their supporters to not read too much into updated recount numbers that are released at the end of each day; with the race so close, it's likely the lead could fluctuate between Franken and Coleman.

"It's sort of like watching the stock market these days," said Fritz Knaak, a lawyer representing Coleman in the recount. "It's going to go up, it's going to go down."

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Norm Coleman was born in New York City in 1949. Al Franken was born in New York City in 1951.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)