Ben Golnik, who oversaw the GOP's successful campaign to win control of the state Senate, will manage recount operations for Tom Emmer's gubernatorial campaign. Golnik also previously served as executive director of the state Republican party.

One theory as to why Emmer failed to catch a GOP wave that swept the nation is that he never recovered from a bruising month of July.

The Minnesota Secretary of State's office hopes to finish a potential recount in the governor's race by mid December. The office released a proposed time line Friday for the recount.

Pawlenty said he wouldn't discourage the new Republican Legislature from passing controversial legislation until any recount or court challenge is resolved.

Mark Dayton became the first DFL governor-elect in 24 years under the unlikeliest of circumstances on Tuesday night, beating Republican Tom Emmer by a final margin of fewer than 10,000 votes out of more than 2 million cast. The exceedingly slim margin - less than half of one percent - will trigger an automatic recount.

With 100 percent of polling precincts reporting, the current -- yet unofficial -- vote tally shows DFLer Mark Dayton holding a 8,854-vote lead over Republican Tom Emmer.

The headquarters of the St. Paul Regional Labor Federation (commonly known as 411 Main) is the epicenter of labor's get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of DFL candidates in the east metro. On the second floor is a call center with a dozen phone lines dialing union members across the state to make sure they vote.

The day before the general election, Tom Emmer and several dozen supporters gathered at St. Paul's Holman Field early Monday morning to kick off an all-day fly around campaign blitz across Minnesota.

We are in the final stretch in the 2010 election season, and it's doubtful any of the three gubernatorial candidates are going to get much rest this Halloween weekend. They will be holding rallies across Minnesota.

Election Integrity Watch is planning unprecedented efforts to combat electoral fraud in Tuesday's balloting. The coalition of conservative advocacy groups claims that it's going to have "thousands" of trained poll watchers to keep an eye out for irregularities on Election Day.