Minnesota begins recount for Senate
Workers must tally 2.9 million votes by Dec. 5. Or 30,000 a day, for six hours each day.
ST. PAUL, Minn. - City and county workers across Minnesota began a laborious recount yesterday of 2.9 million ballots in the tight Senate contest between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken.
The state's first look at recount figures showed that nearly 16 percent of ballots were recounted by the end of the day, with 221 challenges statewide. Election workers have until Dec. 5 to complete the recount.
The recount is required under state law because less than one-half of 1 percent of the votes cast separated Coleman and Franken when the initial count was completed. Coleman's 215-vote lead heading into the recount translated to 0.008 percent.
Before the sorting began, Joe Mansky, elections manager in Ramsey County, where the state Capitol is, laid out the task and the ground rules: 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; and no talking.
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.
Minnesota's race looms large in the Washington power balance. Depending on another undecided contest in Georgia, the Minnesota outcome could determine if Democrats gain 60 Senate seats, which would enable them to overcome GOP filibusters.
Yesterday, Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, conceded defeat to his Democratic challenger, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich. The Alaska win gives Democrats 58 seats in the Senate, when two independents who usually align with them are included.
"Given the number of ballots that remain to be counted, it is apparent the election has been decided, and Mayor Begich has been elected," Stevens said in a statement. Begich had declared victory Tuesday night.
In Atlanta, former President Bill Clinton appealed to Georgians yesterday to back Democrat Jim Martin in his runoff with incumbent Republican Saxby Chambliss.
"The hopes of America are riding with Georgia," Clinton told a rally at historically black Clark Atlanta University.
Chambliss said the GOP loss in Alaska raised the stakes for his contest as his party tried to fight off a Democratic grip on the White House and both houses of Congress.
At an event alongside Wayne LaPierre, National Rifle Association vice president, Chambliss said, "It means that if the Minnesota race was lost, and this race was lost, then they [Democrats] will have a blank check."
