Minnesota ? City and county workers across Minnesota began a laborious recount Wednesday of more than 2.9 million ballots in the tight U.S. Senate contest between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken.

The state’s first look at recount figures showed that nearly 16 percent of ballots were recounted by the end of the day, with 221 challenges statewide.

Election workers have until Dec. 5 to complete the recount.

The recount is required under state law because the votes cast for Coleman and Franken differed by less than one-half of 1 percent. Coleman’s 215-vote lead heading into the recount translated to 0.008 percent.

The count of nearly 300,000 ballots in Ramsey County — home to the state capital — is likely to take several days.