The manual recount of all ballots in the U.S. Senate race is well under way in Ramsey County. Eight teams of inspectors are scrutinizing ballots at the county’s election offices while authorized representatives of the two campaigns hover nearby. It’s just one of roughly 110 locations across the state where ballots will be manually inspected over the next two weeks to determine the winner of the most closely contested Senate race in Minnesota history.

Joe Mansky (foreground), Ramsey County elections manager, said that there have been few problems encountered. “This is pretty typical for the type of recounts I’ve been involved with in the past,” he said. “It’s just larger and has more ballots involved.” As of 1:30, he estimated that there had been 10 to 12 ballots challenged by either the Franken or Coleman camps. “There will be fewer challenges as time goes on,” he predicted. “People kind of see what the lay of the land is.”

Mansky said that he had not yet seen Judge Dale Lindman’s order requiring Ramsey County to disclose the names of voters whose absentee ballots have been rejected. “We’ll do whatever it takes to comply with the Judge’s order,” he said. “I’m not sure what we’re going to do, but we’ll take whatever the path of least resistance is.”

Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie stopped by to observe the proceedings. “A very common thing I’ve heard is a very small number of challenged ballots,” he said, although he declined to give a figure for how many votes had been contested. “Tonight at eight o’ clock you’ll get to see, with the whole planet, the results that are completed for the day. That’s the first time I’ll see it as well.”

Ritchie said there had been few reports of conflicts between the two campaigns. “A challenged ballot is a challenged ballot. It goes in the pile. We start at zero. A recount has nothing to do with November 4th. It starts at zero and it goes to three million.”