Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..
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Recount: How Did Minnesota Do?
Today, the Minnesota Canvassing Board is expected to certify Al Franken as the winner of the state's marathon U.S. Senate recount. While legal machinations will continue, now seems like a good time to evaluate how the state performed.
You can make a case that the revelations of the recount exposed vote-counting in Minnesota as a complete mess. Ballots disappeared. Local officials appeared ignorant of the laws that establish grounds for rejecting absentee ballots. Some ballots allegedly were counted twice.
On the other hand, when problems emerged, state officials seemed to move quickly to resolve them. The Canvassing Board, which included Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and Republican appointees, didn't appear to be favoring one candidate or the other (at least from my vantage point 1,000 miles away).
Overall, I'm not sure whether Minnesotans will have more trust or less in their voting process. I'd love to see some polling on that question and on Ritchie's approval rating.
Twitter: @governing
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