WOODSTOCK — With a cluster of silver-haired seniors hunched over card tables, pencils in hand, the basement at the Windsor County Building looked more like a bingo hall than an election battlefield.

Waiting to start work on a ballot recount settling last month’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, they killed time Wednesday doing crossword puzzles, eating pizza or kibbitzing. Then, when a new batch of ballots were plopped in front of them, they went to work.

“Readers” would examine the ballots one by one, calling out the name checked on the ballot.

“Matt Dunne ... Shumlin ... Shumlin ... Markowitz,” they said.

Then the reader would hand the ballot to the next person, while across the table, a “marker” kept a running count on a colored tally sheet.

When they finished, they traded roles, the readers becoming markers, the markers, readers. When each town’s ballots were done being counted, volunteers would bring in another black nylon “Vermont Election Materials” bag, open it and start the process again.

In a scene played out in courthouses in all 14 Vermont counties, small armies of volunteers began the tedious work of counting 74,634 votes in a bid to determine whether state Senate President Pro Tem Peter Shumlin really did win the five-way contest Aug. 24.

Shumlin held a 197-vote lead over state Sen. Doug Racine in official tallies, but Racine requested a recount in hopes the result would reverse, as it did in a 2006 race for state auditor.

The recount may run into next week, according to Claire Mee, clerk of Washington County Superior Court, which is overseeing the proceedings. On the first day of the recount, four counties — Essex, Grand Isle, Addison and Franklin — finished their work.

On Wednesday, volunteers — some nominated by the candidates, some participating just to be part of the process — reported for their $30-a-day duty and started out by taking sworn oaths.

Once sworn, the volunteers for the Windsor County recount — wearing “R” for Racine, “S” for Shumlin or “O” for other on their handwritten name tags — began the hurry-up-and-wait task of counting, counting and counting some more.

Three teams did the hand-counting and two other teams kept tabs on the counting done by optical-scanning machines used in eight of the county’s 24 towns.

“It’s a historic moment,” said one volunteer, Jamie Hess, 56, of Norwich, who wasn’t affiliated with any candidate. “It’s not often that a political contest generates this much excitement and enthusiasm and ends up being this close.”

Neither Shumlin nor Racine planned to look in on the recounting.

“There’s not much to see,” said Racine, who finished up a two-day “Unity Tour” with the other candidates earlier Wednesday.

Shumlin’s campaign manager said she was confident he would be declared the winner.

“We have people in each county updating us on how the counting’s going,” said Alexandra MacLean. “He’s not going to be there physically.”