Ritchie signs Dayton's election certificate
Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie signed Democrat Mark Dayton's election certificate Thursday morning, formally certifying Dayton as the winner of the 2010 governor's election.
At a briefing signing ceremony in his office, Ritchie said he was proud and relieved that the process ended without litigation.
"The physical hand-count in the statewide race was very close to the machine count," Ritchie said. "It's a signal in my mind that the work of the local election officials who really are the ones who run our elections, combined with the optical scan machine which are the method we use to quickly count he ballots, give us an election system that is extremely accurate."
According to the official numbers Dayton got 8,770 more votes than Republican Tom Emmer in the November election. Dayton will be sworn into office on January 3.
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