The Scott County Government Center, where the House District 54A election contest trial was held, seen on December 16, 2024. Photo by Michelle Griffith/Minnesota Reformer.
During the first day of a trial that could determine control of the Minnesota House, a key question arose over 20 missing ballots on which the race and disputed outcome now depend: Do we know which Shakopee residents cast those missing ballots?
In House District 54A, which includes Shakopee, Rep. Brad Tabke won the race over GOP challenger Aaron Paul by 14 votes. If Tabke prevails, the House of Representatives will be deadlocked between Republicans and Democrats; Legislative leaders are currently working on a power-sharing agreement, but it appears to have stalled as the lawsuit challenging the 54A race continues.
Paul is contesting the election results, and on the first day of what is expected to be a two-day trial Monday, lawyers for Tabke and Paul agreed on the basic facts of the case: Twenty ballots were lost around Oct. 17, and the county has tried everything to get them back, without success. An official likely threw away the 20 absentee ballots, all of which were hand-delivered to Shakopee City Hall.
Attorney David Zoll argued on Tabke’s behalf that the attorneys can determine who cast the absentee ballots that are now missing and ask them who they voted for.
However, Paul’s attorney Reid Lebeau said it is impossible to determine with absolute certainty who cast the ballots. Therefore, a judge should order a special election.
“Ultimately, this court will have a clear choice. Either we restore certainty and confidence in our elections, in the system, or we don’t,” Lebeau said in his opening statement.
Zoll said holding a special election would disenfranchise the 20,000 residents who had already voted in the House race. A special election would likely be a low-turnout issue in the dead of winter.
“History shows that only a fraction of voters will cast their ballots and make their voices heard (in special elections),” Zoll said in his opening statement. “Representative Tabke, on the other hand, believes that this court and the parties must do the work to determine whether the failure to count the twenty ballots…. actually influenced the outcome of the elections.”
Zoll said if the 20 ballots had been counted, Tabke would still have won the race.
Before the trial, Judge Tracy Perzel issued a ruling that the voters’ identities would be kept sealed and secret. The voters were identified only by a number.
The lawyers called witnesses who indicated that both sides identified the 20 people whose votes were lost. They have been able to do this because they have a good idea of the day and time of the lost ballots, which allows them to identify voters through elimination.
LeBeau called six Shakopee voters to the stand, who said LeBeau told them their votes had not been counted. All six said they voted for Paul.
“I feel like I’ve been robbed,” said voter number 17, a man who appeared to be in his 60s.
On Monday, witnesses went into the nitty-gritty of Scott County’s election process, laying out exactly how they believe the ballots went missing and how they tried to retrieve them.
Scott County Elections Administrator Julie Hanson testified for about three hours about how she discovered a discrepancy in vote totals and tried to resolve it. After interviewing other election officials and consulting the state’s voter rolls, she believes the ballots were discarded while still in their “secrecy” envelope.
An absentee ballot is contained in a “secrecy” envelope, which is nested within the “signature envelope.” Election workers are tasked with approving or denying the signature envelope and, if approved, removing and setting aside the secrecy envelope, thus preserving voters’ secret ballot.
But in this case, instead of removing the ballots from the secrecy envelopes and running them through the machine, they mistakenly threw it away secrecy envelopes without removing the ballots, creating a 20-vote discrepancy between the signature envelopes and the ballots.
Hanson testified that election officials were supposed to keep the secrecy envelopes even after the ballots had been run through the machines, but she said she got the impression that officials had thrown away envelopes after putting the ballots in the machines for some time, even before the election. 2024. general election.
Hanson characterized the missing voting error as “very significant” and said it was a major problem that should not have happened.
Additional witnesses are expected on Tuesday. It is unclear when Perzel will make her statement.
Tabke was present in court on Monday, but Paul was not.
There is also an election contest underway in House District 40B; winner-elect Curtis Johnson’s residence is being challenged. Although a safely DFL district, Republicans could temporarily control the House of Representatives if a judge overturns Johnson’s victory and orders a special election.
