Apologies for the terrible photo of a photo. I am still unpacking and cannot for the life of me find the cord for my camera. Actual recount photos to be uploaded as soon as possible.
This morning I got my first taste of how an election recount is handled. Turns out the process is a cure for insomnia. To start, the rules were read so that everyone was clear on how the day would proceed. This was an administrative recount only, and would be limited to whether ballots were counted properly for each candidate. Voter eligibility or possible campaign violations would not be considered at this event. Since no one apparently contested the election results, the recount is expected to be the final tally for the DFL primary and Dehn will emerge as the winner.
Amid my criticism of how the final days of the election played out, I said that the time would come when we unite as a party and as a community and move forward. For those of us voting on the DFL ticket at least, that time is now.
The chance for the recount being overturned were slim--the vast majority of ballots were counted correctly the first time. For the ballots that weren't, those would very likely be statistically representative of the election as a whole. So once the rules were explained, we got to the actual ballot counting itself, which was sort of like watching someone else check out a library book but less exciting because it took all day. Even though the observers' area was full, hardly anyone spoke. The ballot counters announced each ward and precinct, ceremoniously unsealed the ballots, and counted away. Actual challenges to the ballots were quite rare, but did happen once while I was present...
