Second District recount begins at slow pace

Recount teams in Nicollet, Brown counties today

By GUY PRIEL

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- The Second Congressional District recount got off to a slow start on Thursday as several counties waited for teams to arrive for the recount.

The recount was requested by Rep. David Minge, the Montevideo Democrat who was defeated Nov. 7 by Watertown Republican Mark Kennedy.

In Nicollet County, Auditor Bob Bruns spent the day waiting for the team to finish counting votes in Le Sueur County. Because of a lack of space during the remodeling of the courthouse in St. Peter, Bruns had planned on taking the ballots to Le Center to be counted.

"That didn't work out, it seems," Bruns said. "I put in a call to the attorney to get a time frame so I could transport the ballots over."

The counting team will arrive in St. Peter today to begin counting the estimated 9,000 votes by hand.

There were a total of 15,327 votes cast in Nicollet County on Nov. 7. Bruns estimates that about 6,000 of those were in North Mankato and Belgrade Township.

Brown County Auditor Marlin Helget said Brown County was on the standby list when teams are available to count. Although scheduled to begin today, Helget was doubtful anything would be completed until early next week. Three teams are scheduled for the recount in Brown County.

In Redwood County, in addition to the three team members, there was one Republican observer and someone from the county auditor's office.

"It's a slow process, but everyone is hard at it," an Auditor's Office spokesperson said. "Each ballot is being counted three times, which makes for a slow process."

According to the Secretary of State's Office, 7,748 votes were cast in Redwood County. Of that amount, Minge received 3,123, or 41 percent of the votes; and Kennedy received 4,338, or 56 percent of the votes, a difference of 1,215.

"Once the numbers start coming in, there still aren't any definites," Minge spokesperson Alana Christensen said. "They are counted by precincts, of course, and then there might be challenges that will have to be reviewed by the judge."

Because the recount is one of the biggest in state history, it is a fairly new process for everyone involved, Kennedy spokesperson Jeff Bakken said.

"What we are seeing here is a microcosm of what is going on in Florida, and people are sick of recounts," he said. "We have other issues to deal with, so haven't been paying much attention to the recount yet. We are confident of where we are at right now."

The longest process will be in the suburbs, so it will be a few days before anything is known, Bakken said.

The court ruling states that counters may only work seven and a half hours per day.

The deadline for the count is Wednesday, Dec. 13.

As of Thursday evening, the only county where a count had been completed was in Cottonwood, where Minge gained two votes, Christensen said.