5 counties left in Minn. recount; Dayton pads lead

Published 7:54 am Thursday, December 2, 2010

ST. PAUL — Five counties have work left in the Minnesota governor’s race recount.

Results posted Wednesday by the Minnesota secretary of state showed both Democrat Mark Dayton and Republican Tom Emmer gaining votes compared with the Nov. 2 count for the same precincts.

Dayton, who led coming in, picked up 17 extra votes. Emmer had 14 additional votes.

The picture could be much worse for Emmer because his team has challenged hundreds more ballots than Dayton’s volunteers. Challenges tend to temporarily suppress the vote total of the other candidate.

In all, Emmer has amassed 679 challenges to Dayton’s 163. That doesn’t count attempted challenges deemed frivolous by local officials.

All told, almost 84 percent of ballots have been recounted. Anoka, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey and St. Louis counties are still working.