Republicans seek Minnesota House majority through two legal challenges

Republicans are contesting two general election results with legal action, hoping to tip the tied 67-67 Minnesota House in their favor. 

On Tuesday, House Republicans announced they intend to file a lawsuit over the election results in House District 54A, which encompasses Shakopee. Democratic-Farmer-Labor Rep. Brad Tabke is leading the race over his GOP opponent Aaron Paul by 15 votes after a recount last week.

House Speaker-designate Rep. Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, in a statement said there were “inconsistencies in vote reporting” and “21 missing ballots.” 

“House Republicans are taking action to ensure that every legal vote counts and that the election is decided by the people of District 54A without interference,” Demuth said.

It’s unclear what has caused potential vote count discrepancies. There are a few potential reasons for a discrepancy, and not all of them involve the ballots being missing. For instance, an elections official may have made a mistake on a computer menu option and marked a batch of ballots as “accepted” when they meant to reject them due to signature issues or any of the other reasons a ballot can be rejected. In that case, the ballots would be tallied as “accepted” in the computer system but never actually tabulated as votes because election workers rejected them, creating the discrepancy.

In a statement on Wednesday morning, Scott County Attorney Ron Hocevar said the discrepancy appears to be a result of human error.

“The preliminary investigation into the 21-ballot discrepancy hasn’t been determinative thus far, and it appears likely to be the result of human error that occurred during the collection of early absentee ballots at the City of Shakopee. This unfortunate situation resulted in a level of confusion that should not have occurred,” Hocevar said.

The House will be evenly split after the GOP successfully flipped three DFL seats earlier this month. House leaders are currently negotiating a power-sharing agreement, but Republicans are eager to take full control.

In typically safe DFL House District 40B, which includes Roseville and Shoreview, GOP candidate Paul Wikstrom filed an election contest against DFL opponent Curtis Johnson. Earlier this month, Johnson won the race for the House seat by 30 points, but in court filings Wikstrom alleged that Johnson doesn’t live in the district.

House candidates need to be a resident in the House district for which they are running for at least six months before an election. In an affidavit, Wikstrom alleged that Johnson has a Little Canada home he primarily lives in — not in the House district — and rents a Roseville studio apartment in the district to make it appear like he lives there.

Johnson didn’t immediately respond to the Reformer’s request for comment about the allegations disputing his residency.

Wikstrom in his affidavit stated that his campaign created an “investigative team” to monitor Johnson’s whereabouts and alleged that Johnson would regularly come and go from his Little Canada home. He detailed the measures his campaign took to determine whether Johnson lived in the Roseville apartment.

Wikstrom said his team called Xcel Energy and Comcast to see if the Roseville apartment was hooked up to electricity and internet, and they were “given the impression” that the apartment didn’t have accounts set up for either.

One campaign staffer went to the Roseville apartment and saw that the door “was dusty and lacked evidence of any recent activity or markings indicating dust being wiped away from use,” the affidavit states.

Another campaign staffer in October went to Johnson’s Roseville apartment and took photos underneath the door, which ended about an inch above the ground, according to the affidavit. What was visible was bare and didn’t have furniture, according to the affidavit.

Wikstrom said Johnson should be denied his election certificate based on the residency issue. 

Proving a candidate is not a resident can be difficult. The most recent residency challenge was in 2016, when Republican Rep. Bob Barrett was banned from running because he didn’t live in his district. 

Editor’s note: The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell. 

This story was written by Michelle Griffith, who covers Minnesota politics and policy for the Reformer, focusing on marginalized communities. It originally appeared in the Minnesota Reformer on Nov. 27.