Minnesota Lawyer
Ramsey County election officials reviewed stacks of ballots
Minnesota has a history of close election contests, but so far no race in Tuesday’s primary election got quite close enough to trigger an automatic recount.
Secretary of State spokeswoman Pat Turgeon confirmed Wednesday that no races are heading to a recount as of yet. One race got close: North Minneapolis’ House District 59B DFL primary featured a slight, 19-point spread between winning candidate Raymond Dehn and second-place finisher Terra Cole, but it still fell outside the 0.5 percent margin of total votes cast needed to trigger a recount. There were 2,360 votes cast in that race.
The state has seen major recounts in the last two election cycles. In 2008 the race between then-GOP Sen. Norm Coleman and DFL candidate Al Franken set off a historic recount battle, in which the final margin separating the two candidates was just 312 votes. During the 2010 cycle, Republican Tom Emmer and Gov. Mark Dayton went into a recount in the gubernatorial race.
