Let's begin by taking a look at the current vote totals for each candidate with 91.95% (3803 of 4136) of precincts reporting in the Minnesota Governor's race:

Source: Minnesota Secretary of State Unofficial Election Results at 3:20:50 AM on 11/3/2010

Obviously the election is close, but is it close enough for a recount? Possibly, specifically under §1.b.1 of the following state law:

204C.35 FEDERAL, STATE, AND JUDICIAL RACES.
Subdivision 1. Automatic recounts.[...]

(b) In a state general election when the difference between the votes of a candidate who would otherwise be declared elected to a statewide federal office, state constitutional office, statewide judicial office, congressional office, state legislative office, or district judicial office and the votes of any other candidate for that office:

(1) is less than one-half of one percent of the total number of votes counted for that office; or

Source: MN Statute 204c.35 via the Office of the Revisor of Statutes, State of Minnesota

The Minnesota State Canvassing Board must certify the results of the election before the margin of victory even enters into consideration for an automatic recount. Minnesota law dictates that this certification meeting is to occur on November 23rd, 2010; or the third Tuesday following the state general election. This meeting occurs after each County canvassing board submits their report to their respective County auditor.

At each County canvassing board, a post-election audit will also be performed. This involves a manual recount of a small sample of Minnesota precincts; it's designed to catch any systematic errors before the results are certified. In the 2008 election, the audit covered 1.297% of Minnesota's precincts and changed 106 votes out of the 54,036 that were recounted. The manual recount process for the post-election audit is covered in MN Statute 204C.21.

After the State canvassing board has met, they have three days to declare the result. If at this time the margin of victory is less than half a percent, a recount is triggered.

A lot can change between now and November 26th. If tomorrow morning's unofficial results place the Minnesota Gubernatorial race within the automatic recount threshold, it won't really matter for three more weeks as the count will fluctuate on its way to certification.

There is no recount yet, but there may be in three or four weeks.

Updated on November 11, 2010 at 5:30:02 PM CT