After unofficially being named the winner by 78 votes the morning after election day, Kevin Dahle can now officially call himself senator-elect.

Dahle, a DFLer in a tight race with Republican Mike Dudley in Senate District 20, won with a 71-vote edge after a three-day recount of all the ballots concluded Friday. The recount added six votes in Dudley's column, while Dahle lost one vote from the election day totals. (Full results below.)

On Dec. 4, the elections board will go over the challenged ballots (one by each Dahle and Dudley) and certify the results.

Recount results

Bryan Wells, Dahle's campaign manager, wrote on Facebook on Friday that the six months of campaigning and extra three weeks of waiting was "absolutely worth it."

"The recount is over: we've won!!! After six long months, the Dahle campaign is victorious," he wrote.

Because the vote totals from Nov. 6's election were within one-half of 1 percent of each other (50.03 percent for Dahle and 49.84 percent for Dudley), an automatic recount was triggered, according to Minnesota statute.

• Check out a precinct-by-precinct breakdown of election day results

The day after the election, Dudley told Patch he was undecided about a recount, which he could have called off.

He said he didn't think he'd be able to make up the difference, but ultimately he decided to let the process play out.

"I have been getting a lot of calls from supporters urging me to go ahead with the recount as required by law," Dudley said the following day when he decided to go ahead with the recount.

Dahle, as an incumbent senator, lost a close race in 2010 to Republican Al DeKruif in what was then known as Senate District 25.

"It feels so much better to win an election," Dahle told Patch after the final unofficial precinct numbers were revealed election night. "I never thought it'd be that close. It's really a tough district."

And that's when the separation was 332 votes. Hours later, the Minnesota Secretary of State's website updated to reveal a 78-vote margin, triggering the recount. 

Senate District 20 includes the northern half of Rice County, most of LeSueur County and the southern part of Scott County.

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Here's a breakdown of the original votes and recount:

LeSueur County

Rice County

Scott County

All Counties