Minn. board allows 3 days for recount in Supreme Court race
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The state's canvassing board has ordered Minnesota's first statewide recount in more than 45 years.
Local election officials in all of the state's counties will recount ballots to determine who will take on state Supreme Court Justice Lorie Gildea in the November election.
Returns from the Sept. 9 primary had Hennepin County District Court Judge Deborah Hedlund ahead of defense lawyer Jill Clark by 1,348 votes in the chase to face Gildea. That margin was less than one half of one percentage point, triggering the automatic recount.
The manual review of 419,474 ballots will begin Wednesday and wrap up by Friday. Final results are scheduled to be certified on Sunday.
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Secretary of State Mark Ritchie says the recount needs to be completed quickly.
"On a general election there isn't a timeline for completing it, because you just wait until it's done. With a primary election you have to complete it quickly in order to print the ballots, so that absentee ballots can be distributed," said Ritchie.
Ritchie says the printing of those absentee ballots begins Monday.
The last time Minnesota held a statewide recount was in a general election in 1962, and that recount took 139 days to complete.
Ritchie said the court race recount can proceed faster because there fewer overall ballots, county officials are assuming large roles and the state uses optical-scan ballots now that are easier to read.
Another recount is needed to determine the Independence Party candidate for state House in District 3A, which is in northeastern Minnesota.
The primary night tally had W.D. "Bill" Hamm winning by three votes over Chris Pfeifer for the nomination to challenge DFL Rep. Tom Anzelc and Republican Marv Ott.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report)
