Two tight races in the Nov. 2 general election sparked a Monday of recounts in both Freeborn and Mower counties.

The recount for the District 27A House race began in Freeborn County at 9 a.m. today, with volunteers and county employees sorting and counting ballots — by hand — from all Freeborn County precincts. The recount from the governor’s race is expected to begin at 1 p.m., both in the Freeborn Room at the Freeborn County Courthouse. Each recount will go through the same process.

After the State Canvassing board officially certified the votes last week, GOP challenger Rich Murray was officially leading incumbent DFLer Robin Brown by just 57 votes coming into the recount this morning.

In the governor’s race, Democrat Mark Dayton leads Republican candidate Tom Emmer by a slim 8,770 votes.

Both races require an automatic recount, as Minnesota law states an automatic recount is triggered when there is a margin of victory of 0.5 percent or less.

Freeborn County Auditor-Treasurer Dennis Distad had six counting stations set up in the Freeborn Room, each with two election judges who were either county employees or volunteers performing the recounts. One observer from both the Brown and Murray campaigns also stood at each station, looking on.

Distad’s role in both recounts was to act as the final authority if there are any questions as to voter intent.

At a table in the back of the room were Freeborn County Administrator John Kluever and Freeborn County Deputy Auditor-Treasurer Nicole LaFrance, who were straightening ballots before the ballots were delivered to each station for sorting and counting.

“We’re making the process more time efficient,” said Kluever. “These guys have a lot to do and this saves them some time.”

Before any of the counting started, the two election judges at each counting station first sorted ballots by hand into three piles: Brown, Murray and “other.”

According to Distad, “other” were ballots with write-in votes or those that weren’t marked for a candidate.

Once all of the ballots were sorted, the counting began. The process was repeated for each of the 41 boxes of paper ballots — one for each precinct, including absentee ballots.

Brian Rice, lead representative for the Brown campaign, was floating from station to station, answering questions. This is not the first recount he has been involved in. He was a part of the Sparks/Schwab recount eight years ago and knows the importance of checking the hand count with the machine count.

“In that one, we started 33 votes apart and ended with just five,” he said. “We are here to make sure that voter intent is clear on the ballots.”

He said after the recount this morning, he and the representative at the Mower County recount would report their results back to Brown. He expects Brown to make a statement once the results in Mower and Freeborn County are finalized.

Brown had previously reported she would continue to serve her constituents until her term is finalized.

Murray previously reported he was going forward, “business as usual,” participating in orientation at the State Capitol recently and “freshman orientation” scheduled the first week in December.

Distad expects the recount for the District House Race to be complete by noon, and the governor’s race to begin at 1 p.m. today. He said all results will then be forwarded to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Recounts in all 87 counties across the state began Monday and will finish by mid-December. Distad said he expects a winner to be announced in both races by Dec. 14.

The new governor is to take office Jan. 3, but that could be delayed if either side files a legal challenge to the recount result. Emmer reported last week that he won’t go to court to challenge the results of the upcoming recount if it’s clear he can’t win.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.