New York to Minnesota: 'Recount This!'

For too long, political observers around the country have been reduced to drooling over one measly Senate race recount in Minnesota, the never-ending slugfest between Al Franken and Norm Coleman.

Well, the voters of New York's 20th Congressional District had enough of Minnesota's disgraceful grandstanding as the recount capital of the nation. So in their special election to replace now-Senator Kristen Gillibrand, they awarded each candidate exactly the same number of votes.

The election will most likely hinge on opening absentee ballots, and then the inevitable recount. That process begins today and won't be over any time soon ...

The counting of the absentee ballots is set to begin today in the NY-20 special election, where Republican candidate Jim Tedisco and Democrat Scott Murphy are in a near-tie that now hinges on the nearly 7,000 absentees. But as it turns out, we shouldn't expect a quick verdict.

The counties are now going through the process of identifying the ballots and approving them for opening, which should be a time-consuming process. For example, Washington County's deputy Republican commissioner Linda Falkouski explained to TPM that the county probably won't actually count any ballots today.

"They [the commissioners] had other things they wanted to do," said Falkouski, "like compare signatures, make sure signatures are the same, that nobody voted at the polls and by absentee ballot." Counting won't happen unless they get done with the preliminary steps quickly, which Falkouski said is not likely to occur.

So don't hold your breath. Because even after they get their act together, New York intends to drag this thing on until long Minnesota secedes and becomes a Canadian province.