ST. PAUL -- The leader of Minnesota's governor race fears a delay in naming a winner past mid-December will hinder state budget preparation.
Democrat Mark Dayton said a recount of all 2.1 million ballots cast in the Nov. 2 election has forced him to do things other than concentrate on what Minnesotans found out Thursday will be a $6.2 billion deficit.
"It's created a diversion of time, resources (and increased) fundraising responsibilities," Dayton said.
Dayton continued to hold a strong lead Thursday night, when the secretary of state's office released its unofficial recount update. Dayton led Republican Tom Emmer by 8,725 votes, with 93 percent of the votes recounted. That is just short of the lead Dayton held at the beginning of the recount.
Only Hennepin and Ramsey counties still are counting ballots. Ramsey could finish today, and Hennepin may stretch into Saturday.
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The recount, which began Monday in all 87 counties, features election officials examining each ballot to determine the voter's intent. If an Emmer or Dayton representative disagrees with the official's decision, the ballot is called "challenged."
But an election official has the power to declare a challenge as frivolous, if he or she feels the voter's intent is clear, and the vote is counted.
Dayton's recount team said Thursday that would withdraw all 42 of its "frivolous" challenges before the State Canvassing Board meets today. As of Wednesday night (Thursday night figures were not available), election officials had declared more than 2,500 Emmer challenges as frivolous.
The state board meets today to decide if it could act on frivolous challenges.
Dayton seemed to take the recount in stride.
"Close elections are not the exception to life in a democracy," he said.
His transition team, which has hundreds of names of people interested in being in a Dayton administration, works out of an East St. Paul office. It is privately funded, but when a person is declared governor-elect, the state pays for the transition office and houses it in state facilities.
Dayton said he would focus on naming revenue and finance commissioners first, because of the need to delve into budget matters. Interviews could start as early as next week, with him announcing appointments about the time the State Canvassing Board plans to name a governor race winner Dec. 14.
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But the picture would be muddied if Emmer loses the recount and takes the election to court. Dayton said his attorneys feel that if a court case stretches into the New Year that current Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty would be forced to say on the job until the case ends and a new governor is declared.
Pawlenty says he hopes he does not need to remain in office beyond Jan. 3, but the state constitution requires him to if a new governor is not certified by then.
Don Davis reports for Forum Communications Co., which owns the Herald.
