Another Minnesota Election Recount

I know Minnesota made the national news again with our recounts for several offices especially for Governor.  This time Eileen and I help with the recount.  It was an interesting experience that started a few days before with an on line training session for about 90 minutes.  We were given many examples of ballot markings we were to challenge but when we got to the recount they instructed us if the intent was clear not to challenge the ballot even if they used an X instead of filling in the oval.  My personal preference would be to reject all ballots not filled in per the instructions on the ballot but everyone used the same basis for challenging the ballots and there were few challenges.  The biggest challenge was keeping the Election Judges calling the right vote or putting the ballot in the right candidates stack - we had to be on our toes.  I don't think there was any intent in the Election Judges mistakes, just too many ballots and monotony.  I was shocked by the number of DFL participants who seemed to think there was some Republican conspiracy.  "You know the ballot counting machines are made by Republicans so they tamper with the counts" is just one example.  I had to hold my tongue a few times and just laughed at others.  The DFL had the lead and this was a recount mandated by state law because of the closeness of the votes.  There was certainly no conspiracy!