Sherburn Co. House race recount results affirmed by officials

SHERBURNE CO., Minn. (FOX 9) - Sherburne County election officials have completed a recount of votes tabulated on election night in the Minnesota House District 14B race – ultimately affirming incumbent Rep. Dan Wolgamott (DFL) the winner.

What we know

The hand recount focused on the race between incumbent Wolgamott and challenger Sue Ek.

Unofficial first results showed Wolgamott with a 191-vote lead over Ek prior to a recount being called due to an error on election night.

The hand recount of 2,655 ballots resulted in Wolgamott having one fewer vote. No ballots were challenged by either candidate.

The margin of victory in the House 14B race was not close enough to trigger a publicly funded recount, according to officials, but the county paid for it due to an election night reporting problem that prevented all vote totals from being transmitted to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Election error

Some mail-in ballots reportedly failed to upload to the Minnesota Secretary of State's website on election night.

Sherburne County officials previously addressed rumors that some votes were "lost" and "found" by emphasizing that the "chain of custody was maintained" and all ballots were handled properly.

What went wrong?

An "improperly cleared or partially damaged memory card" was attributed to the failure to upload the votes, according to Sherburne County officials.

That memory card reportedly sent erroneous generic "test" data that was designed to test the reporting system before the election, creating inflated vote totals that later decreased after the error was discovered and corrected.

This data was sent to the Minnesota Secretary of State's Election Reporting System (ERS) and displayed unofficial results on the Secretary of State's Election Night Reporting website.

On Wednesday, Nov. 6, the Minnesota Secretary of State's Office had Wolgamott leading by fewer than 30 votes in the 14B race against Ek.

According to the Minnesota Secretary of State, a publicly-funded recount for an election for a state legislative office can happen if the results are within 0.5%.