Sherburne Co.’s Post-Election Review confirms the results, the dates for the recount have been set

SHERBURNE CO., Minn. (FOX 9) – Three races in Sherburne County are headed for a recount after an error on election night, and officials are speaking out against misinformation and rumors that ballots have been lost.

Staff speaks

Since then, county staff have spoken out against misinformation and what they call rumors that ballots have been “lost” or “found.”

Sherburne County officials said there was an error uploading election results to the state’s election reporting system on election night.

“A little piece of all that data, and in this case it was the vote by mail that we tabulated here, but that was not uploaded to the Secretary of State’s website,” said County Administrator Bruce Messelt.

Messelt said that for three identified races affected by this delayed reporting, the county will conduct a public recount at the county’s expense.

At a county board meeting on Tuesday, Commissioner Andrew Hulse also denounced all the misinformation surrounding the error.

“This is my frustration. I spent the next two weeks correcting incorrect and misleading information,” Hulse said.

The province announced dates for the three recounts.

• Baldwin City Council on Nov. 20 at 1 p.m. in the Sherburne County Boardroom at the Government Center in Elk River.
• House 14B on November 25 at 10 a.m. in the Maple Room at the Government Center in Elk River.
• ISD 728 on Dec. 3 at 9 a.m. in the Maple Room of the Government Center in Elk River.

Results coming

Messelt said the school district race will most likely take the most time.

“The closest race is actually a school district race. Under state law, it is eligible for a public recount anyway,” Messelt said. “That will actually be a large recount because the school district covers five counties so that will be our longest recount. We estimate it could take up to three days.”

With many eyes on the House District race, where Democratic incumbent Dan Wolgamott leads Republican challenger Sue Ek by 191 votes,

The county said they will likely complete the recount for that race and the city council race within a day or so.

For county staff, they said transparency of the election process is their top priority.

“The reality is that these manual recounts and the one we’re going to do next week, I think, confirms that Minnesota is doing a good job in the election,” Messelt said.

As for the cost of a recount, the county said it is essentially the cost of staff time.

Separately, county election officials completed their post-election review of three randomly selected precincts on Tuesday. They found that out of 5,552 ballots, only three votes had been changed. The three were all write-in votes who missed completing the write-in circle.