It was smooth sailing as the the U.S. Senate election ballot recount got started at the Carlton County Courthouse this morning.
"It's going well," said Carlton County Auditor Paul Gassert. "Nothing unusual."
He and a team of two staff members were counting votes one precinct at a time while at least six people observed. By noon, they had recounted 2,300 votes from seven of 39 precincts.
"We haven't started the big ones yet, however," Gassert said. "We'll start on Cloquet precincts after lunch."
Only two votes were challenged, one by a volunteer for Sen. Norm Coleman and one by an Al Franken volunteer, but the totals for each candidate to that point remained the same.
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Gassert expects the county's 18,530-vote recount to be completed by the end of the day, Nov. 26.
"We'll know more by the end of the day Friday, but if we slow down, we'll bring in more staff to get it done," he said.
By the original tally, Al Franken garnered 9,517 votes to Sen. Coleman's 6,099.
