This race is the closest Senate race in Minnesota history and the closest race anywhere in the country this year. With 2.9 million votes cast, there’s a margin of roughly 400 votes. It’s too close to call, and we don’t know yet who won.

Here’s where we are now: Right now, each of Minnesota’s 87 counties are conducting a review of the election results. By November 11, all of the county canvassing boards will have certified the election results. By November 18, the State Canvassing Board will certify the election results.

Once that happens, the Minnesota Secretary of State will begin the recount, which will probably take several weeks. The recount is triggered automatically when races are this close to make sure we determine the outcome with certainty. (An automatic recount is triggered by a margin of .5% of the vote ­ right now, the margin in our race is only .01%.) The recount will be orderly, fair, and conducted with one goal: To ensure that every vote is properly counted. We may have to wait a little while to learn who won the election, but we will know that the voice of the electorate was clearly heard.

Questions we’re getting from folks:

Q: Have recounts overturned results this close before?
A: Yes. In the 2004 gubernatorial election in Washington State, Christine Gregoire was 261 votes behind after the first count. After a recount, she won by 133 votes. (She was just re-elected Governor this election.) There have also been cases of recounts overturning the initial results in Minnesota races ­ two years ago, a St. Louis County Attorney’s race triggered an automatic recount when one candidate was ahead by 53 votes, and after the recount, the other candidate won by 88 votes. And as Al remembers watching on TV when he was a kid, the 1962 Minnesota gubernatorial race between Elmer L. Anderson and Karl Rolvaag went to a recount.

Q: What is the campaign doing now?
A: We’re assembling a team of supporters, staff, and legal counsel to make sure that this recount is conducted fairly and every vote is counted properly.

Q: What about irregularities?
A: Our office and the Obama campaign have received reports of possible irregularities from around the state. Some reports may turn out to be without merit; others may be of serious consequence. Our team looks into every report we receive, and we will continue to do so.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 6th, 2008 at 17:31 and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.