1962 recount

Had state Sen. Kathy Sheran’s bill to reform absentee voting dodged Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto pen last year, it might have spared Minnesota at least some of the agony of the current statewide recount. Sheran has denied foreknowledge that the outcome of Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race this year would hang on absentee ballots. Now she tells the Minnesota Independent that her reform effort also wasn’t inspired by a recount involving a contested absentee ballot in her first race 24 years ago. That story is told in government meeting minutes that are — amazingly — available online going back more than 50 years at the City of Mankato Web site. But proximity to the state’s most dramatic recounts seems to run in the family for Sheran, whose father was a longtime justice on the state Supreme Court.

Here’s the perfect holiday gift for that loved one who’s hooked on the recount in the Minnesota Senate race between Al Franken and U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman: a 46th anniversary edition of the popular Trivial Pursuit quiz game celebrating the great statewide recounts of 1962 and 2008. Sample questions:
▲ What elected official set the table [...]