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Mystery cloaks MN House race as recount approaches

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Published  November 13, 2024 6:18pm CST
Scott County
FOX 9

Scott County election mystery: 20 votes missing

The state’s closest election is the subject of a recount and a bit of a mystery. Rep. Brad Tabke (DFL-Shakopee) leads GOP challenger Aaron Paul, but not by much.

The Brief

    • The closest Minnesota House race will head for a recount and possibly an audit.
    • Rep. Brad Tabke leads challenger Aaron Paul by 14 votes, but the county can't account for 20 "check-ins" that don't correlate to received ballots.
    • Control of the House weighs in the balance because the body looks to be tied 67-67.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. (FOX 9) - The state’s closest election is the subject of a recount and a bit of a mystery.

Rep. Brad Tabke (DFL-Shakopee) leads GOP challenger Aaron Paul, but not by much.

Mystery voters?

Fourteen votes separate the candidates, but Scott County is still trying to account for 20 votes that seem to be missing.

The county canvassing board certified the current snapshot of results late Wednesday afternoon.

And the board found out about a few quirks during the election.

"Since we don’t have answers to these questions, how do we certify an election that’s so close?" asked canvassing board member and Shakopee Mayor Matt Lehman before being assured he was accepting just the numbers at a point in time, and allowing any audits and recounts to proceed.

Software transmission mistake

In the first glitch of the election, the county’s vendor allowed the software to send partial results to the Secretary of State instead of the complete results.

So that gave people a false impression that Paul was in the lead on Tuesday night.

Jammed ballots

The elections team also found 38 uncounted absentee ballot images, but fixed that by rescanning every single absentee ballot.

And then they found one final unusual quirk in a single Shakopee precinct.

Where are the votes?

"We had 329 people check in to absentee vote," said Scott County Elections Administrator Julie Hanson. "We received 309 ballots back. I can't guarantee that a ballot was issued to those 20 voters. I can't speculate at this point. We have done a lot of auditing, a lot of digging and investigation."

Hand recount scheduled

The county will do a hand recount Nov. 21 in the race for 54A in the House, and either the county of the Secretary of State or both will investigate what happened with the 20 mystery check-ins.

Power in the state legislature hangs in the balance.

It looks to be tied at 67 DFLers and 67 Republicans.

Planning for a tie

GOP speaker-designate Lisa Demuth is still hopeful for a majority, but she told us she’s already meeting with DFL leaders to figure out a power sharing strategy.

"Stay tuned," said Demuth, (R-Cold Spring). "It is going to be incredibly exciting to watch how this plays out in a tie."

One more recount

There will a recount in Sherburne County for 14B as well, but Rep. Dan Wolgamott, (DFL-St. Cloud) leads Republican Sue Ek by almost 200 votes in that race -- which includes Stearns and Benton counties -- so the GOP’s best hope to gain a majority is in Scott County.