Minnesota House of Representatives candidate Aaron Paul, a Republican, filed an election contest lawsuit on Friday that seeks to bring a new election in House District 54A.
The election in District 54A proved to be one of the closest elections in Minnesota this year. After a recount was conducted last week, State Rep. Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee, led Paul by just 14 votes in the race for the Scott County legislative seat.
However, the race has been shrouded in controversy since Scott County officials disclosed that they discovered a 21-ballot discrepancy in the district. Just days ago, the county announced preliminary conclusions from an investigation into the matter.
According to those preliminary conclusions, 20 absentee ballots were “properly accepted” for counting, should have been counted, but were not counted. Additionally, the preliminary conclusions stated that those 20 ballots were likely “thrown away” and “likely will not be recovered.”
Those 20 absentee ballots were all from one Shakopee precinct. The remaining discrepancy was from a separate precinct and was “not pursued” after county staff “noted that it is not uncommon for one voter to check in and not vote,” a letter from the county attorney said.
Given that the number of missing ballots is larger than the margin of victory, the Republicans announced that they would file an election contest lawsuit.
“Scott County election officials unlawfully lost and failed to count significantly more ballots than would be needed to change the announced result of the election, meaning at the very least the actual victor is in absolute doubt and at worst the candidate who received fewer votes has been announced as the winner,” says Paul’s lawsuit.
In turn, the lawsuit states that “the Court should declare that a vacancy will exist for this seat once Rep. Tabke’s current term ends, which would allow voters to make a clear decision pursuant to Minnesota law governing special elections.”
According to the lawsuit, the county failed to “record, maintain, and count at least 20, possibly 21, validly cast absentee ballots in direct violation” of Minnesota statute. The lawsuit also states that “a question exists as to who received the largest number of votes legally cast for Minnesota House District 54A.”
Among other things, the Republican legal filing requested that the court declare the election invalid, recommend that the House refuse to seat Tabke, and file a “Notice of Contest” with the chief justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Alpha News reached out to Scott County but did not immediately hear back.
House Speaker-designate Lisa Demuth, the leader of the House Republicans, put out a social media post about the lawsuit which said, “Ballots are missing. Election laws were violated. A new election is the only way to resolve the problems in District 54A.”
If Tabke were to occupy the seat, the House would be tied: 67 DFLers and 67 Republicans. If Paul were to occupy the seat, the Republicans would have a 68-66 majority. As such, the outcome of the election contest lawsuit will have major ramifications for Minnesota’s state government.
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
