In a Thanksgiving-eve, pre-holiday, afternoon news dump, officials in Scott County admit that 20 ballots were destroyed in this year’s election. The county attorney issued a two-page report, summarizing the search so far for some missing 21 ballots. The report states that “the investigation is not complete and remains ongoing.”
In the report, the county points the finger at the City of Shakopee but does not name any names. The county claims, without providing any supporting evidence, that these 20 absentee ballots were shredded while still inside their security envelopes. In fact, the county is unable to pinpoint exactly where in the process the destruction took place.
The upshot: some 20 ballots were thrown out and later shredded after having been accepted by the county’s ballot board as valid but before they were included in the official vote count.
In a separate media statement, the county claims the destruction “appears likely to be the result of human error.” It should be noted that in the report itself, neither the words “human” nor “error” ever appear. The report itself reaches no conclusion on any motive or lack thereof.
Those 20 destroyed ballots were more than enough flip the result in the race for state house of representatives District 54A, where the incumbent Democrat Brad Tabke (DFL-Shakopee) is said to have prevailed over his Republican challenger Aaron Paul by 14 votes.
A close reading of the two-page report reveals that only these facts were established: a group of 329 ballots were judged valid by the ballot board. Of those 329, only 309 votes were later counted. A search for the missing 20 ballots proved fruitless.
Any speculation that the missing ballots were thrown out, and later shredded and landfilled, is just that: pure conjecture. Since such occurrences are exceedingly rare, the assignment of probabilities to various possible outcomes is without basis.
Despite the missing valid ballots, the county’s canvassing board met on Monday and “certified” the “results” of the race.
Republicans have announced that they will file to contest the results, and a filing could occur as early as Friday.
In an unrelated series of snafus, the MN secretary of state had posted vote totals on election night that indicated a win for Paul, with 100 percent of precincts having reported. By the next morning, Tabke was shown as holding a tiny lead.
News coverage on the destroyed ballots from: Star Tribune, KSTP-TV, WCCO-TV, MPR, Fox 9-TV, KARE 11-TV.
Unlike the other media reports, MPR’s Dana Ferguson goes beyond the facts included in the county report to speculate, without evidence, which candidate was favored by the destroyed ballots. Ferguson argues that they were likely evenly split, given the precinct involved and the overall closeness of the race.
Since the county (1) cannot prove that the ballot envelopes remained unopened until shredding and (2) does not name the person(s) involved so that motives can be examined, all possibilities remain open, including deliberate election tampering.
Developing…