On Monday the Dayton-Emmer vote count reset to zero and then began to inch up.

One by one local election officials started counting the 2.1 million ballots in the governor's race in 85 spots across the state. The count will continue until every last ballot has been touched, examined and witnessed.

"Here we go," said Hennepin County Elections Manager Rachel Smith, addressing more than 100 table officials and observers as she explained recount rules.

Volunteers and attorneys from DFLer Mark Dayton and Republican Tom Emmer will be watching each ballot carefully, ready to pounce if they disagree with the election officials' call.

The Secretary of State's office will post the results from each day on its Web site but the full results may not be clear until next month.

For local officials the start of the counting brought back bad memories of the 2008 U.S. Senate race, which didn't end until June 2009 after a recount and trial.

"It's kind of like a sequel," said Joe Mansky, the Ramsey County elections director, said Monday morning, as the statewide recount was set to begin at a county office building near downtown St. Paul. "The original one (the 2008 U.S. Senate recount), I don't need to see that one again."

County officials have until Dec. 7 to finish their counting, though many expect to finish well before then.

Mansky said that, with slightly less than 193,000 ballots cast in Ramsey County in the Nov. 2 election, he hoped to recount 40,000 ballots per day and finish sometime Friday afternoon. By contrast, he said, about 278,000 ballots were cast in the county in 2008.

"We're about a third down, numbers-wise," he said.

After the local counting is done, a state canvassing board will determine how to tally any ballots that the campaigns' think were unclear or invalid. That process is expected to take until Dec. 10.

Here are more answers about the recount from the Secretary of State's office:

FAQ Statewide

-- With contributions from Pat Doyle and Mike Kaszuba