Sherburne County plans a manual recount of election races

SHERBURNE, Minn. (FOX 9) – Sherburne County will hand recount the 2024 election ballots to confirm the accuracy of the results.

What we know

Reportedly, some mail-in ballots failed to be uploaded to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website on election night, prompting an updated vote count in the close race in Minnesota House of Representatives District 14B.

After the ballots were counted, they gave DFL Rep. Dan Wolgamott a slightly bigger lead in his race against Republican Sue Ek.

READ MORE: Delayed counting of absentee ballots gives DFL bigger lead in House 14B race, GOP demands investigation

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

A press release from Sherburne County also said local election night summary statement totals have not changed.

What went wrong?

According to Sherburne County officials, an “improperly erased or partially damaged memory card” is blamed for the failure to upload the votes.

That memory card reportedly sent erroneous generic “test data” intended to test the pre-election reporting system, causing inflated vote totals, which later dropped after the error was discovered and corrected.

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

What comes next?

Sherburne County officials say they have asked the Minnesota Secretary of State for permission to conduct a manual recount at the county’s expense.

The county says they have communicated with candidates about the error and the next steps in the count.

If a candidate requests it, Sherburne County can now recount races that no longer fall within the threshold for a mandatory, publicly funded recount.

Background

On Wednesday, November 6, Minnesota Secretary of State Wolgamott led by fewer than 30 votes in the 14B race against Ek. Now Wolgamott leads by 191 votes after the additional votes were counted, leaving him with 50.36% of the vote, compared to Ek’s 49.40%.

According to Minnesota’s secretary of state, a federally funded recount for an election for legislative office can occur if the result is within 0.5%. Since the new absentee ballots were counted, the 14 billion race margin is now outside the margin for a government-funded recount.

According to Sherburne County Administrator Bruce Messelt, the delayed upload of ballots was limited to one scanner and “involved incomplete transmission of data from that scanner to the state election reporting system.”