The Minnesota Supreme Court has rejected Mike Lindell’s petition for a recount in the state’s gubernatorial primary.
Lindell lost the Republican primary for governor earlier this month to Lisa Demuth by 11 points. Lindell then indicated he would seek a recount, citing “anomalies” in the results.
However, Lindell’s team and the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office disagreed on the parameters of the recount.
Lindell argued that the law requires a tallying of all votes for each candidate in both the Democratic and Republican primaries for governor.
“Contrary to Minnesota statute, Respondents adopted a Contingent Plan and Recount Procedures which provides that the recount include only the votes cast for two Republican candidates (Lindell and Lisa Demuth) and place every other candidate’s ballots into a third pile that will not be either counted or recorded,” Lindell’s attorneys argued.
“That limitation violates the plain language of [Minnesota Statutes], which requires that the scope of the recount consist of ‘the determination of the number of votes validly cast for the office,’ here, the gubernatorial race,” they added.
Lindell claimed that the procedures to be used for the recount were not made clear to him until Aug. 24, the last day for him to transfer the $825,000 required to pay for the recount.
He asked the Supreme Court to order a full recount that would include “the recording of votes for every candidate.”
Conversely, state attorneys for the Secretary of State’s Office and State Canvassing Board argued that Lindell “was personally notified of the recount procedures on August 18” but “waited until the final minutes of the last day to petition this Court for relief.”
“The recount procedure adopted by the Board included all ballots cast for the primary elections for governor. Those ballots would be tallied for Lindell, Demuth, and ‘other.’ Such a count would determine the number of votes validly cast for the election,” the state argued. “That procedure complies with the counting methodology described in [Minnesota Rules].”
In a decision released Saturday, the Minnesota Supreme Court sided with the state, finding that the Secretary of State and State Canvassing Board were “not committing any wrongful act, omission, or error.”
As such, Lindell’s petition was rejected. He told MPR he plans to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
