By Shannon Fiecke, Staff Writer

The U.S. Senate race recount has already started in other areas of the state, including neighboring Carver County, but Scott County’s ballots won’t be hand-counted until Dec. 3.

Counties in charge of their own recount were able to select which day they will conduct it. Carver County chose Wednesday, the first day possible.

Scott County decided prior to this election not to volunteer its staff for a recount effort if one was needed. Therefore, the state, which will oversee the recount in Scott County, selected the date it will be conducted here. The state wants all county recounts completed by Dec. 5.

Although a secretary of state official is overseeing the process locally, the Scott County elections department is assisting the state.

The recount is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. Dec. 3.

Scott County Elections Supervisor Mary Kay Kes said there were a lot of local people interested in helping.

Election judges and city officials will count the ballots at the Scott County’s conference center, located in a former house on Fourth Avenue north of the Government Center.

Carver County’s recount took place Wednesday and Thursday and lasted about 15 to 16 hours, an official there reported. 

Earlier this fall, there was a statewide judicial race recount for the primary election. It took about four hours to complete in Scott County, Kes said. There were 5,422 county ballots cast in that primary. There are 67,317 to count for the general election.

Kes said officials will identify ballots that machines might have misread, perhaps because voters didn’t fill the oval in dark enough or because they marked two choices and then crossed one out.

Ballots that are unclear or challenged by the political parties’ recount observers will be forwarded to the state canvassing board for a final determination, Kes said.

Prior to this fall’s primary recount, the last statewide recount was the 1962 governor’s race, which Democrat Karl Rolvaag ultimately won by 91 votes out of 1.3 million cast, according to WCCO.com. That recount lasted 139 days.