An update from Kevin Rennie, a columnist with the Hartford Courant and former CT state senator, on the Courtney-Simmons recount. The Democrat challenger led by 167 votes heading into the recount out of some 240,000 cast.

The recount began yesterday in CT-2, a 64 town district. The first town resulted in a net pick up of one vote for Simmons. The only distraction for Republican operatives is their fury over the Rumsfeld resignation. If he had announced his departure in September, they believe, Simmons would have been in a better position on Tuesday night.

Both sides have brought in recount pros from Washington. It's beginning to look like Florida. The Democrats had a training session yesterday. Most of the towns will count the ballots on Monday. Republicans are optimistic they can prevail and the Democrats believe Courtney's margin will increase.

There are 10 towns in the district that used new electronic, bubble ballot machines. The rest of towns used the tradition lever machines. How to recount those electronic ballots may be deeply contentious.

Republicans are licking their chops over one town where they believe the number of votes cast exceeds the number of voters checked in by nearly the number of votes Courtney is leading by.

There is only one immutable rule in the recount trade: recruit no nice people. It's hand-to-hand combat in town halls in eastern Connecticut. In previous recounts, there have been swings in totals. In 1996, Nancy Johnson's recount had changes in local totals of hundreds of votes. One town had a change of over 200, others between 50 and hundred. The net result was a couple of hundred votes more for Johnson.

I had a recount 12 years ago. The results in each town of my Senate district changed totals. One town had an 80 vote error on a machine. This is one area of politics where there is still a lot of spontaneity.