The election contest of the Shakopee-area House 54A seat reveals more incompetence.
The election was almost two months ago, and we’ve almost sorted out what happened. One state house of representatives seat (40B) has gone to a January 28 special election, after it was determined that the Democratic candidate didn’t live within the district. Alphanews reports that the Republican 40B nominee from November is running again and will face a Democratic nominee after a five-way DFL primary scheduled for January 14.
As of today (New Year’s Day) we still do not have a court decision in the House 54A race. You will recall that the Democratic incumbent leads by 14 ballots, with 20 ballots confirmed to be missing and presumed destroyed.
You will also recall that on election night, officials posted results that appeared to be final, and which showed the Republican challenger winning the race.
Now we have another revelation of 54A election incompetence. Last month, Republicans dug into the computer file listing the 22,000 voters casting ballots in the 54A race. This analysis revealed some 30 duplicate records, again, more than enough to change the outcome.
The Republicans shared their findings with the proper authorities. In yet another late day, holiday-eve news dump from Scott County (Shakopee), we hear that,
Scott County can assure the public that there were no duplicate votes in district 54A in the 2024 election.
“Assure”? You have to skip down to paragraph 3 of the Scott County statement to discover an admission by county authorities to having created 30 duplicate voter records through error.
The county’s explanation manages to become more horrifying than the underlying error. We are asked to believe (paragraph 6) that the list of who voted in November is fluid and subject to change until 9 weeks after the election. Further, the county informs us (paragraph 3) that it hand-entered 3,000 voter records post-election. Yikes!
To recap: we are to believe that the same election authorities that admit to publishing erroneous “final” results on election night, admit to destroying 20 valid ballots before they could be counted, and admit to creating 30 erroneous voter records, post-election, got the real result correct. By 14 votes.
Sorry, not this guy.
What we have in Shakopee/Scott County is the collision of two cliches: every election is “the most important election ever” and “good enough for government work.”
Like other government bureaucrats, election officials demand and expect total and unquestioning respect. Yet, in the event, they dismiss every documented error as “just one of those things.”
The stakes could not be greater. The outcome of the House 54A race will determine who controls the chamber for the next two years. It will either be a 67-67 tie and shared control or a 68-66 Republican advantage. The difference in those two results will, at a minimum, determine the fate of billions of dollars in state government spending.
With so much on the line, citizens are justified in expecting 100.000% accuracy in their election counting. “Good enough” is not good enough.