It’s day three of the recount! Heading into today, Mark Dayton’s team says they are just two votes shy of a 9,000 vote lead over Tom Emmer.

Almost 70 percent of ballots have been recounted already. One of the big issues that has come up in the recount is frivolous ballot challenges. These ballots are counted for the candidate who election officials think received the vote, but then are set aside for possible review.

This is important because all the ballots could go before the State Canvassing Board for review. The more ballot challenges, the longer it will take to review them and determine who will be our next governor. Emmer is asking that every challenged ballot, frivolous and legitimate, be reviewed.

Emmer is challenging way more ballots than Dayton. For example, Emmer’s campaign challenged 423 ballots in Renville County. All but one of those challenged were deemed frivolous. Dayton didn’t challenge any ballots in Renville County.

Republican Party chair Tony Sutton is hinting at a recount contest again. When asked if a contest was coming, Sutton replied,

“It could be. We think there are some legitimate issues.”

Tony Sutton is the only one seeing these issues, because the recount has been running cleanly and efficiently.

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