Later Saturday, Raffensperger sent a written message to his deputy asking him to officially notify county election directors to prepare for the recount and to notify political parties so they could muster observers at the respective sites.

“This will be highly scrutinized so emphasize to the counties the importance of transparency and accuracy of the process,” Raffensperger said in his instructions to his aide.

The recount will be done using scanners that read and tabulate the votes. County election workers have already done a complete hand recount of all the votes cast in the presidential race. But that stemmed from a mandatory audit requirement and isn’t considered an official recount under the law.