Welcome back to recounts, Eric Magnuson.

Magnuson, the recently ex-Supreme Court chief justice who was on the state canvassing board in the 2008 U.S. Senate recount, will be Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer's lead litigator during the 2010 recount.

The Republican Party Tuesday said that despite Magnuson's addition well connected Washington, DC attorney Michael Toner will still lead the Emmer legal team.

The announcement of Magnuson's hiring comes a week after Election Day.

The hiring is an interesting move for the Republican Party, which, at times, has intimated that the 2008 recount was mishandled and suggested that Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie didn't do a good job in administering it. Two years ago, Magnuson seemed to get along well with Ritchie and had intimate knowledge of the Senate recount.

In the 2008 recount, Magnuson was well known for keeping a so-called hieroglyphics sheet for the challenged ballots where he marked down, in his own particular way, the "precedents" the board set as it judged hard-to-read ballots.

That same sheet may be useful again as this year's state canvassing board meets. Here are Magnuson's 2008 notes:

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