“We stole some joy from some people — we failed in our job,” Sherburne County Commissioner Bruce Messelt said during a Tuesday morning board meeting addressing election results in Minnesota’s District 14B.
Messelt’s comments followed confusion on election night when the Secretary of State’s website initially showed DFL Rep. Dan Wolgamott trailing Republican Sue Ek with 100% of precincts reporting. Later in the night, updated results showed Wolgamott leading by 28 votes.
BREAKING: With 100% reporting, Democrat Dan Wolgamott is losing to Republican Sue Ek by FOUR votes in Minnesota House District 14B.
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) November 6, 2024
“On election night, there were people who believed the reports were more than unofficial and believed that they were more accurate than they were,” Messelt explained.
Initial explanation cited data transfer error
Three days after the election, Sherburne County election officials attributed the issue to a data transfer error involving one ballot scanner, which excluded some absentee ballots from the unofficial election night totals.
At that time, officials said the corrected count widened Wolgamott’s lead to 191.
What is going on in Sherburne County, MN?
More votes found that boost incumbent DFL Rep. Dan Wolgamott's lead from 28 elex nite to 191 now. pic.twitter.com/HHpEEXGSgv— Peter Callaghan (@CallaghanPeter) November 8, 2024
Two weeks later, new details emerge
Now, two weeks after the election, the county provided further explanation of what went wrong. According to Messelt, the issue stemmed from errors in handling absentee ballots and test data not being cleared from the system.
He clarified that the initial uploads at 9:00 p.m. on election night only included Election Day results from about one-third of precincts and did not include certain absentee ballots.
“What we failed to upload was the absentee ballots from the mailed-in or dropped-off ballots,” Messelt admitted.
Test data error adds to reporting confusion
Sherburne County officials also identified an issue involving test data from sample ballots that had not been properly cleared from the system.
According to Messelt, the memory card containing the test data was not zeroed out before being used, leading to the presence of incorrect test batch data in the election reporting system.
“We know that the memory card did not clear the test data. We can hypothesize it wasn’t properly put into the port, and there may have been a glitch between the server and the memory card – we just aren’t sure at this time,” Messelt explained.
Hand recount planned despite falling outside public funding threshold
Messelt addressed the narrow margin in the State House District 14B race, noting that after the post-election day upload of mail-in ballots, the race became less competitive and ultimately fell outside the threshold for a publicly funded recount.
Despite this, Messelt confirmed that a hand recount of the Sherburne County precincts for District 14B will take place on November 25.
“This is outside the threshold for a publicly funded recount, but we have offered to conduct it for the Sherburne County precincts,” Messelt explained, noting the county felt it was the right thing to do given their initial reporting error.
During the meeting, Sherburne County Commissioner Andrew Hulse criticized the Minnesota GOP for spreading “misinformation” and failing to reach out for clarification.
In a statement on election night, Lisa Demuth, Minnesota House GOP Leader, said her party was aware of and looking into “multiple irregularities” on the Secretary of State’s website “with results changing after 100% reporting.”
Hulse’s ire then moved from the GOP to a member of the mainstream media.
Frustration with media coverage
Hulse criticized KSTP reporter Tom Hauser for publishing “incorrect information” without contacting officials for verification.
“Tom Hauser’s report on KSTP… still has incorrect information. He also never bothered to pick up the phone. I would think as a professional reporter you would do that, but I guess laziness continues,” Hulse said.
GOP hires attorney for audit
In response to the election concerns, Senate District 14 Republicans hired attorney Matt Benda to review the election process in Stearns, Benton, and Sherburne counties.
“We started with Sue Ek ahead by four votes, then down by 28 votes, and then magically down by 191 votes, which was outside the mandatory recount,” said Benda. “I’m very surprised that Secretary Simon hasn’t set aside his partisanship and [himself] ordered a full recount in 14B.”
The Minnesota Secretary of State’s website gives a closer look at the election results across all 87 counties.
Jenna Gloeb
Jenna Gloeb is an Edward R. Murrow Award-winning journalist, media producer, public speaker, and screenwriter. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and on-air host for CCX Media. Jenna is a Minnesota native and resides in the Twin Cities with her husband, son, daughter, and two dogs.
