By Mike Kaszuba and Rachel E. Stassen-Berger

A big stack of ballots might end up before the state canvassing board next week.

During the gubernatorial recount, which started Monday, DFLer Mark Dayton and Republican Tom Emmer's campaigns are allowed to challenge any ballots if they object to how local election officials think they should count. The state canvassing board is assigned the job of making the final determination on those challenged ballots.

In 2008, that process meant that the state canvassing board, which handled the U.S. Senate recount, was faced with more than 6,000 ballots. This year, officials made an effort to whittle down that stack by giving local officials more authority to question campaigns' challenges.

But at least one local elections official said Monday he would not use that authority to set aside so-called "frivolous challenges."

Joe Mansky, Ramsey County's election manager, said he would simply send all challenges to the state canvassing board.

"If you challenge them," he told the Emmer and Dayton observers at the beginning of the recount, "I'm not going to challenge you."

He said copies of each ballot challenged on a particular day would be made available to the two campaigns at the end of the day.

"I don't think we're going to have any frivolous challenges," he said, adding that last week's state canvassing board had left the impression with him that such challenges would be limited by both campaigns. "That's my inclination, yes (to send all challenges to the state), unless something is really way out of bounds. (But) I don't think that's going to happen."

A Dayton attorney said he was surprised by Mansky's decision.
Tim O'Brien said he spoke to Mansky after he announced his decision and told him, "I didn't share his interpretation."

O'Brien added that "we have communicated (Mansky's decision) to the legal team for Dayton, and they are going to be reacting to it."

An Emmer attorney said he was pleased with the Mansky decision.

"We love Joe," said Emmer lawyer Tony Trimble. The Emmer campaign has maintained that the board should decide the merits of challenges.

Rachel Smith, elections manager in Hennepin county, said she isn't followong Mansky's approach. Smith said "we'll follow the rules," referring to guidelines by Secretary of State Mark Ritchie calling for local officials to summarize frivolous challenges for the board and to segregate those ballots.

If campaigns challenge ballots strategically, they can take votes out of the daily count posted by the Secretary of State at the end of each day, making their opponent appear to have fewer votes for a time. Eventually, the state canvassing board will wade through all the challenged ballots, make the final call on how they should count and settle the vote margins.

--Pat Doyle contributed to this report