Recount number firms up

• Mark Dayton

Democrat Mark Dayton said Monday that he is confident he will prevail in a governor’s race recount and become Minnesota’s chief executive Jan. 3.

Talk about it

Governor hopeful Tom Emmer lost a Supreme Court ruling Monday just before an election board prepared to order 2.1 million ballots Minnesotans cast in the race to be recounted.

“Those numbers are not going to change much at all now,” said former U.S. Sen. Mark Dayton, who leads Emmer by 8,770 votes.

That tally was confirmed Tuesday when the State Canvassing Board met.

Dayton stopped short of declaring victory and said the recount process should be allowed to play out.

Republican Emmer had asked the high court to order the canvassing board to make sure election officials in every one of the state’s 4,136 precincts count every voter’s signature from election day and compare that with the number of ballots cast. If there are more ballots than voters, Emmer attorney Diane Bratvold argued in the Supreme Court, state law requires ballots to be removed at random until the numbers match.

Another Emmer attorney, Tony Trimble, said there were so many cases already reported about over-voting that thousands of ballots could be removed.

Attorneys for Dayton and Secretary of State Mark Ritchie argued that local elections officials were following a rule that was implemented to fill a gap left when some voting laws were changed and that an accurate vote count is the most important goal.

Dayton’s recount staff was happy with the high court ruling.

“Minnesota’s election went through a thorough process of review, both during the county canvassing and also during the post election reviews, neither of which showed any indication of problems,” Dayton Recount Director Ken Martin said. “Again, Minnesota’s elections have a clean bill of health.”

A recount in every county will begin Monday.

Tags: election 2010, news, elections