Governor's race: a Range war in the offing?

As I write this, a few minutes after midnight, the CNN results page has Tim Pawlenty holding a 7,000-vote lead with 77 percent of precincts reporting. The slowest reporting has come from the 8th District, in Iron Range counties. A few minutes ago, Pawlenty chief of staff David Gaither was on TV complaining to Tom Hauser of KSTP about the "integrity of the process," and specifically certain "irregularities" in the reporting from St. Louis and Cook counties. If Pawlenty loses a close race owing to late returns from the Range--from here, it still looks like Magic 8-Ball was right--expect a fuss in the days to come.