The drudgery of democracy began in earnest at 8:30 a.m.
A platoon of counters, observers and campaign volunteers descended on a basement room of the Hubbard County Courthouse to participate in the recount of Minnesota's most contentious Senate race in history.
Sorters and counters began the laborious task of hand counting more than 11,000 ballots cast in the Nov. 4 election. Only 215 votes separated Sen. Norm Coleman from challenger Al Franken.
By 12:30 p.m. the recount was complete, with Coleman gaining three votes.
The contrast in campaigns couldn't have been more obvious. Franken's team was mostly young men in jeans and plaid shirts. The Coleman campaign was mostly well-dressed senior citizens. None would speak to the media, saying they had been instructed not to.
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None of the rancor that marked the bitter election was present early on as teams from both campaigns sipped coffee, chatted and roamed the halls munching on doughnuts.
It didn't last.
Hubbard County auditor Pam Heeren thanked everyone for coming, went over the rules and admonished all the observers and counters at the tables to "put your coffee cups on the floor. We don't want any mishaps."
Her prefatory remarks indicated that she didn't expect many problems. "Our voters are pretty intelligent," she said. "We do help everyone who needs it at the polls" to ensure their vote is registered.
But some early squabbling broke out when a challenged ballot was placed into the Coleman pile by the sorter. Campaign volunteers quibbled whether by placing it in a pile, the ballot had been officially accepted. The initial issue was whether the voting tabulation machine had actually counted a ballot marked in red ink.
"The counters are here as non-partisans," Heeren cautioned. "You can determine this in the count." If the recount matches what was recorded from the precinct on Election Day, the machine counted the ballot.
Heeren said the voting machines are "much more forgiving than we tell people."
But voters are all instructed to use the same type of pen to mark ballots, just to prevent errors.
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One-half hour into the recount, the Coleman campaign had already challenged one ballot. The challenged ballot will be sent to the State Canvassing Board, where a five-member panel will view all challenged ballots to determine the voter's intent.
Results will be electronically transmitted to the Secretary of State's office the same way they were sent Nov. 4.
