Minnesota House recounts keep two DFLers in the lead, court challenge likely
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A pair of DFL lawmakers remained on track to keep their House seats after their election counts were affirmed Monday, which keeps the chamber on course to be tied next year.
Scott County officials certified the results of a House district recount, signing off on the 14-vote win for DFL Rep. Brad Tabke over Republican challenger Aaron Paul. But the result is likely headed to court.
An attorney representing the Minnesota House Republican campaign brought up 20 or so absentee ballots that officials haven’t been able to account for. Those ballots were often referred to as “the elephant in the room” during the afternoon hearing.
Scott County Attorney Ron Hocevar advised the board that it must only deal with the tallies before it.
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“Regardless of these other ones that are out there, ‘the elephant in the room,’ right?” Hocevar said. “You’re not certifying that you agree with this. You’re not certifying you disagree with it. You’re certifying that the recount is accurate. And at that point, the campaigns have a course through the law to challenge that.”
Paul has a week to challenge the result in court.
The contest remains under heavy scrutiny because it could determine whether Republicans pick up a seat and flip the chamber to GOP control. Without a change in the race outcome, Democrats and Republicans stand to share joint custody of the chamber with each holding 67 seats.
Another race came up for a separate recount on Monday. Election officials in Sherburne County also recounted ballots by hand in the contest between DFL Rep. Dan Wolgamott and Republican Sue Ek. Wolgamott lost one vote in the three-precinct recount but still led Ek by 190 votes overall. The results are expected to be certified next month.
Wolgamott said he looked forward to working across the political aisle when he returns to the Capitol.
“Now is the time to foster relationships beyond partisan divides to tackle the challenges facing Minnesota’s families,” he said in a news release. “I look forward to working with my seatmate, Rep. Bernie Perryman, and my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to deliver results for St. Cloud.”
About two dozen people gathered at the Sherburne County Government Center in Elk River to watch election judges hand count the ballots.
Sherburne officials held the recount after a problem with the unofficial vote totals reported to the state on election night. They said a memory card that was damaged or hadn’t been properly cleared uploaded inaccurate data to the secretary of state's website. Election officials caught and corrected the error during their normal auditing process.
Building public trust
County Administrator Bruce Messelt says they decided to pay for a partial recount to ensure public trust.
“So our hope is that it will show both transparency and provide confidence that in Minnesota, ballots and elections are done freely and fairly, and that we can really rely on the outcome,” Messelt said.
But the hiccup has prompted some Republicans to raise questions about the credibility of the voting system.
One of those watching the recount was John Palmer. He’s among a group of St. Cloud-area Republicans who have called for a closer examination of Sherburne County’s election process.
“When you have a candidate that the Secretary of State cites says won by four votes, and a few minutes later, she’s behind by 28 votes, and a couple of days after that, she’s behind by 191 votes. Those are not normal kinds of things that occur. And it’s amazing that in this modern age we can’t count,” Palmer said.
The St. Cloud and Shakopee area House contests have ignited political controversies that could linger.
Andrew Hulse is a Sherburne County commissioner and a longtime Republican. He said he’s upset that officials in his own party seemed to spread misinformation before looking into what actually happened.
“All that does is create heated rhetoric that ends up being aimed toward our county employees, and that’s what I found unacceptable, especially when all anybody had to do was just pick up the phone and call to clarify,” Hulse said. “There wasn’t a box of found ballots. There wasn’t additional ballots being scanned that had been found. None of that was the case.”
Hulse said the county has been proactive from the beginning, contacting the candidates and secretary of state’s office as soon as the error was discovered. They’ve already adopted procedural changes to prevent a similar error from occurring again.
But Hulse worries damage to people’s confidence in the voting system is already done.
“They have to trust that if they're going to vote, their vote actually counts,” he said.
Leaders prepare for a 67-67 tie
At the Capitol, Democratic and Republican leaders have been preparing for the prospect of a divided House chamber. DFL Leader Melissa Hortman and GOP Leader Lisa Demuth announced that legislative committees would have co-chairs, one from each party, and that committees would be evenly split between Republicans and Democrats.
They’re also weighing how to share the role of House speaker. The Minnesota Constitution says that only one person can hold the position at a time.
The Minnesota Senate is narrowly divided. The newest member, Sen. Ann Johnson Stewart, was sworn in on Monday bringing the chamber back to full force and restoring a one-vote advantage for Democrats in the chamber.
The 2025 legislative session begins on Jan. 14.
Kirsti Marohn reported from Elk River. MPR News senior politics reporter Dana Ferguson contributed to this story.