Deja Vu all over again.
Recounts are not new in Minnesota. What follows recounts the recount for governor from 1962.
After 139 days as the election had wound its way though canvassing board, recount and a three judge panel, it was over.
How we got there after the Orange fold....
The campaign
The 1962 race was expected to be close.
Republican Governor Elmer L. Andersen had only narrowly beaten Orville Freeman in 1960. Andersen (not to be confused with Minnesota Governors Hjalmer Petersen, Elmer Benson, C. Elmer Anderson or Wendell Anderson) was a self-made man. Orphaned at 14, he rose from part-time salesman to president of HB Fuller adhesive company. As a state senator in the 1950s, Andersen carved out a role for himself in legislative areas such as education, child welfare, and the environment. He was the chief sponsor of the Fair Employment Practices Act, which banned hiring discrimination. As governor, Andersen worked to bring economic stability to Minnesota's Indian reservations and to the Iron Range, where the mining industry was undergoing upheaval. He pushed for the creation of several new state parks and pressed the state Senate to pass the Fair Housing Bill, another landmark in civil-rights legislation. The highway safety legislation he championed resulted in a substantial drop in fatal accidents.
DFL Lieutenant Governor Karl Rolvaag lived in Northfield (college town 40 miles south of St Paul) before fighting in World War II, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant and commandeded a tank. After the war, the son of Norwegian-American author Ole Rolvaag went to Norway to learn about politics before returning home to Minnesota. Once back, Rolvaag became the head of Minnesota's DFL Party (formed in 1944 by a merger of the state Democratic and Farmer-Labor parties). In 1954, he ran successfully for Lieutenant Governor. After serving in that capacity for eight years, Rolvaag mounted a campaign for Governor.
The campaign was not a shining example of Minnesota nice. Each candidate charged the other with (1) being a poor leader, (2) being a big spender, (3) causing high unemployment, (4) building highways to nowhere, (5) taxing the working man, (6) ignoring the needs of educational and welfare institutions, and (7) breaking promises.
The long election night
Most Minnesotans voted via paper ballot counted by hand. Voting machines, refrigerator sized contraptions filled with levers and dials, were confined to the larger cities. As precincts drifted in from various parts of the state, the lead changed several times. It was not until Saturday morning that the Associated Press was confident of reporting a firm result, Andersen 619,640 Rolvaag 619,779 Rolvaag +139.
The Canvassing Boards rule
State law allowed county canvassing boards to revise their reports in the case of obvious errors. It did so without actually defining obvious error. Both campaigns quickly scrambled to cherry pick precincts where "obvious error" changes would help their side. The Republicans found more. By the time the smoke had cleared it was Andersen 619,722 Rolvaag 619,580 Andersen +142. The five member state canvassing board (Secretary of State Joe Donavan, Two Supreme Court Justices, Two District Court Judges) ruled Anderson the winner and issued a certificate of election. Rolvaag challenged the result and forced a recount, but Anderson would be Governor until the challenge was resolved.
The recount
There had never been a statewide recount before and the mechanics of doing one were unclear. Each side tried to maneuver the courts toward its secretly preferred procedures. As it happened, each side had had the same plan so the maneuvering was surprisingly easy. There would be a three judge panel meeting in St Paul. The physical recount would be done by 100 teams each with one democrat, one republican and one neutral. The neutral would handle the the ballots while the partisans would observe and challenge. And challenge they did. At the end of the first pass through the ballots, 97,834 had been challenged (52,273 by Andersen 45,561 by Rolvaag). The judges were not amused. they ordered the sides to resolve the vast majority of these challenges by mutual agreement and to group the remainder into categories to ease court consideration. By the end of the second pass, 3,851 challenges remained and the tally was Andersen 620,369 Rolvaag 620,502 Rolvaag +133.
The three judge panel considers
The challenged ballots were grouped into 27 categories from equivocal votes for Governor to non-uniform voting marks and from names or initials on ballots to absentee not included in recount. The judges looked at and ruled on each ballot in each category and produced a final tally, Andersen 619,751 Rolvaag 619,842 Rolvaag +91.
District Judges Sidney Kaner, Leonard J Keyes and J H Sylvester ruled In March 19.
FINAL CONCLUSIONS OF LAW
As final conclusions of law from all the foregoing findings of fact the contestants are entitled to judgment herein adjudging and determining as follows:
- That Karl F. Rolvaag was duly elected to the office of governor of the state of Minnesota at the general election of November 6, 1962 and is entitled to a certificate of election to that office, and the Secretary of State of the Slate of Minnesota is directed to issue such certificate of election to him after the time for appeal from the judgment to he entered herein has expired, or in case of an appeal, after the final judicial determination of the contest:
- That taxation of costs herein and disposition of the bond posted by contestants shall await the further order of this Court following suitable motions by any of the parties, and that the Court retains jurisdiction thereof.
MEMORANDUM
The court is convinced by very clear and satisfactory evidence in this case: j that the original can. of the votes cast for the office of governor was inaccurate; that because of inaccuracies the statement and certificate of the state canvassing hoard made on November 29, 1962, was likewise inaccurate; that the recount of the votes cast for the office of governor conducted during this election contest by inspectors as provided by statute and as corrected and established herein is substantially more accurate than was the original canvass; and that Rolvaag received a plurality of the valid votes cast for the office of governor.
There was abundant and conclusive evidence that numerous mistakes and inaccuracies existed in the original canvass of the votes.
The recount was duly and properly conducted in accordance with law. The court appointed inspectors selected by the parties. The inspectors duly performed their duties in accordance with instructions and directions given to them by the court pursuant to stipulations of the parties. The inspectors carefully and conscientiously recanvassed the ballots; as required by MS. Section 209.06 they inspected and counted the ballots in the offices and presence of the legal custodians thereof and have made written reports to this court of the recanvass, reporting the number of voles cast for Andersen and Rolvaag and any disputed ballots upon which they could not agree. Each of the parties fully participated at every stage of she entire proceedings and each fully protected his rights, It appeared so the satisfaction of the court that the ballots were preserved intact, were genuine and were securely kept without tampering. To the great credit of the parties, their attorneys and assistants, and the inspectors and referees selected by
the parties, the recanvass was as accurate and reliable as any statewide recanvass could possibly be.
Andersen issued a brief statement saying: "I will meet with my lawyers Friday and review the document and further announcement will be made.”
At a news conference on Saturday March 23rd, Andersen said:
"Today ends one chapter, admittedly a shorter chapter than I had intended, but there are more to he written. . .
"I am disappointed but not the least discouraged. I am defeated but not the least disheartened."
With these words, Andersen decided not to appeal the decision of the three-judge panel. He filed a waiver of the 10-day waiting period which permitted the issuance of the certificate of election to Rolvaag on Monday morning, March 25, 1963-139 days after the election.
At 12:02 p.m. on March 25th, 1963, Rolvaag took the oath of office as Minnesota's 31st Governor.
The recount had cost $226,830.31. This was probably more than the total cost of the campaign which preceded it. It was a different era.
Minnesota Media
The Minneapolis Tribune (not yet the StarTribune) concluded:
RECOUNT IN RETROSPECT
PERSONS FROM outside the state observing the long contest to determine who was governor of Minnesota were probably not much impressed by the efficiency of our election procedures or by the molasses-slow tempo of the recount.
What may have impressed them, though, was our unquestioning resort to the judicial processes for a solution to the impasse, and the dignity with which both Elmer Andersen and Karl Rolvaag conducted themselves under trying circumstances.
In his reply to Andersen', final statement on the recount, Guy. Rolvaag referred to 'the tremendous pressures, the anxieties and the physical demands placed upon the parties to the recount action' . Considering the great strains involved, not only for the principals but for their partisans, it must he said that the state came through this ordeal with credit, if not with a completely unruffled calm.
The good grace with which Andersen made his decision not to appeal the ruling of the recount panel should be noted, as well as his efforts to assure to Gov. Rolvaag the benches of an orderly transition. His serene and philosophical acceptance of what seemed 10 he inevitable was typical of the man.
We were struck, too, by the graciousness of Rolvaag's statement in which he expressed the 'warmest admiration" for Andersen and noted how well he had withstood the pressures and vicissitudes of the recount.
In a recent tongue-in-cheek editorial, the Atlanta Journal commented an the disposition of both Rolvaag and Andersen "to let the courts decide." It then harked back to Georgia's Arnall-Talmadge row when that slate had two governors for a while, amid lots of shoving and pushing and with "two adjutants general bossing the troops around, and with everybody signing cheeks."
"Minnesota may be all right," the editorial concluded, 'but it must be an awfully dull place,"
Perhaps the readiness with which we resort so the judicial processes and our willingness to abide by judicial decisions are characteristics bred in Minnesota - in contrast, say, to some southern states. But "awfully dull" or not, we have passed through the difficult trial of the recount with a becoming respect for the law, the courts and-we hope - each other.
The primary source for this diary was "Recount" by Ronald F Stinnett and Charles H Backstrom; National Document Publishers, Inc.; Washington DC 1964. It was first posted March 23, 2009