Sherburne Co. post-election review affirms results, recount dates set

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

Staff speaks

Since then, county staff have been speaking out against misinformation and what they are calling rumors that any ballots were “lost” or “found.”

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

“One small piece of all of that data, and in this case, it was the mail-in voting that we tabulated here, it didn’t get uploaded to the Secretary of State’s website,” said County Administrator Bruce Messelt.

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

In a county board meeting on Tuesday, Commissioner Andrew Hulse also denounced any misinformation surrounding this error.

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

The county 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 Nov. 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 at the Government Center in Elk River.

Results impending

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

“The closest race is actually a school district race. Under state law, it is eligible for a public recount anyhow,” said Messelt. “That’s actually going to be a big recount because the school district spans five counties and so that will be our longest recount. We estimate that 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 its election process is their top priority.

“The reality is, these hand recounts and the ones we are going to be doing next week, I think affirm Minnesota does their elections right,” said Messelt.

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

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