County plans hand recounts of SELECT election races

County plans hand recounts of SELECT election races

Sherburne County intends to conduct hand recounts of votes in select races, at the County’s
expense, to confirm the accuracy of election results.

Contrary to circulating rumors, no votes were “lost” and none were “found.” All ballots cast in the General Election were properly and legally received, documented, counted, and chain of custody maintained. Some ballot totals failed to upload to the Secretary of State’s website on election night. The ballots that failed to upload were mail-in ballots received up to 8PM on election night, accepted by a bipartisan Ballot Board, properly processed, counted, and included in the printed and electronic tabulations generated at Sherburne County on election night (known as summary statements or “tapes”).

The chain of custody and security of both these ballots and summary statements has been and continues to be maintained. At no time have the totals on the local summary statements changed from election night. The upload failure from the County to the Secretary of State’s Election Reporting System (ERS) was due to an improperly cleared or partially damaged memory card that did not fully collect and transmit results from some of the processed mail-in ballots. This resulted in inaccurate unofficial election results for Sherburne County being displayed for the public on the Secretary of State’s Election Night Reporting website.

The uncleared or damaged memory card also errantly transmitted to the Secretary of State’s ERS generic "test" data designed to test the reporting system prior to the election. The result was inflated vote totals that later decreased once the error was discovered and corrected.

Attempts to correct the upload error on election night failed, and both partially missing mail-in ballot totals and the presence of “test” data continued to be present on the Election Night Reporting website displaying unofficial results.

The continued discrepancy was identified while County staff were verifying that totals on local summary statements matched what is on the Secretary of State’s Reporting website, as well as in preparation of materials for meetings of local Canvassing Boards. Both of these activities are part of the normal election administration process and part of the multiple checks and balances present to ensure the accuracy and integrity of Minnesota’s election and the final official 2024 General Election results.

Upon discovery of the discrepancy, the County immediately contacted the Secretary of State’s Office and uploaded a verified, complete, and accurate set of unofficial election results. County staff also contacted affected candidates to inform them of the updated unofficial results and the issues precipitating the needed update.

To ensure public transparency, the County has asked the Secretary of State for permission to conduct public recounts, at the County’s expense, for identified close races most impacted by this delayed reporting, if requested by a candidate. The County has received preliminary approval to recount select races, if requested by a candidate, that no longer fall within the threshold for a mandatory publicly funded recount.