{"id":2374410,"date":"2024-11-29T11:58:01","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T16:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mn-city-likely-disposed-of-21-ballots-in-extremely-tight-race\/"},"modified":"2024-11-29T11:59:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T16:59:47","slug":"mn-city-likely-disposed-of-21-ballots-in-extremely-tight-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mn-city-likely-disposed-of-21-ballots-in-extremely-tight-race\/","title":{"rendered":"MN City &#8216;Likely Disposed Of&#8217; 21 Ballots In Extremely Tight Race"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmn-city-likely-disposed-of-21-ballots-in-extremely-tight-race%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2374410&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>An investigation revealed that the city of Shakopee, Minnesota, &#8220;likely\u200b disposed of&#8221; 21 missing ballots in\u200d a state \u2063House race that was won by a Democratic incumbent\u2062 by \u2063only 14 votes. According to Scott County&#8217;s attorney, \u200cRon Hocevar, the incident appears to be the result \u2064of human error during the collection of early \u200cabsentee ballots. The disposed ballots were reportedly removed\u2062 from their signature envelopes but not counted. The preliminary investigation indicated \u2064that these\u2063 secrecy envelopes \u200cwere discarded before the ballots were tabulated, leading to confusion,\u200b especially since some voters reported checking in to vote but their ballots did not show in the totals. The ongoing investigation remains inconclusive, and concerns were raised about the chain of custody\u200b for any\u2062 found ballots. Currently, the state House is tied at 67-67, and the implications of these missing \u2064ballots could affect \u2064party control.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>A Minnesota city &ldquo;likely disposed of&rdquo; 21 missing ballots in a race that was decided for the Democrat incumbent by a margin of 14 votes, according to an investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The county attorney for Scott County, Minnesota, said that the city of Shakopee &ldquo;likely&rdquo; tossed 21 ballots without counting them. While it is currently unknown how those votes would have broken down, the state House race for seat 54A &mdash; which could have determined party control for the Republicans &mdash; has been called for the Democrat.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.house.mn.gov\/sessiondaily\/Story\/18422\">current makeup<\/a> of the state House is a 67-67 tie. The investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The preliminary investigation into the <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">21-ballot discrepancy hasn&#038;rsquo<\/a>;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.&nbsp;This unfortunate situation resulted in a level of confusion that should not have occurred,&rdquo; County Attorney Ron Hocevar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scottcountymn.gov\/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1595\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a> in a press release.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Scott County has come to the conclusion that the ballots were likely disposed of while they were in their secrecy envelopes, after being removed from their signature envelopes but before being tabulated,&rdquo; Hocevar <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scottcountymn.gov\/DocumentCenter\/View\/23098\/Preliminary-investigation-summary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a> in a Wednesday summary of the preliminary investigation into the issue. &ldquo;A request was made to the City for their secrecy envelopes, and the County was advised they had been thrown into the garbage.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>During an audit of the vote, Scott County officials noticed that some voters checked in to vote, but their ballots did not appear in vote totals. The summary noted that even if the ballots were found, it is &ldquo;unlikely that their chain of custody can be proven to assure they have not been tampered with.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>A timeline of the facts was included in the preliminary findings:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>On election day, after the polls closed, Scott County noted that the City of Shakopee was slow to report their final results. At 10:50 PM, Shakopee reported that it had 6,300 absentee ballots still in process; at 11:25 PM, the City reported they had only gotten through 2,400 of those ballots with two tabulators running. Scott County advised Shakopee to stop tabulating and the remaining ballots could be run through the County&rsquo;s high speed tabulator. At around 12:20 AM on Wednesday, November 6, the County and City put the remaining ballots through the County&rsquo;s tabulator. Upon completing that work, City staff confirmed that the total of the scanned ballots matched the amount of ballots that they should have reported. This was later found to be incorrect.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Republicans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox9.com\/election\/mn-house-district-54a-results-contest-gop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">filed<\/a> a contest to the election after incumbent Democrat state Rep. Brad Tabke ended up with a 14-vote lead over Republican challenger Aaron Paul.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Today&rsquo;s news confirms why we will be seeking an election contest to protect the integrity of the vote in District 54A&nbsp;with a new&nbsp;election,&rdquo; House Republican Speaker-designate Lisa Demuth said. &ldquo;With 20 ballots missing and confirmation from Scott County that they will likely not be recovered, it&rsquo;s impossible to declare a winner with a 14-vote margin. We appreciate the efforts by Scott County to investigate&nbsp;this matter and be transparent about their findings.&rdquo;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GrageDustin\/status\/1855319778623205469\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">timeline<\/a> curated by Townhall columnist Dustin Grage, two state House races flipped from Republican leads to Democrat leads &ldquo;overnight&rdquo; even though 100% of precincts were reporting.<\/p>\n<p>By 10:45 p.m. on election night, Paul had a 360-vote lead with 100% reporting, but by 11:45 p.m. the results for that race were removed from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/france-bans-use-of-woke-gender-neutral-language-in-schools-is-a-danger-for-our-country\/\" title=\"France Bans Use Of Woke Gender-Neutral Language In Schools: \u2018Is A Danger For Our Country\u2019\">state secretary<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-spike-in-florida-coronavirus-cases-despite-no-mask-mandate\/\" title=\"No Spike in Florida Coronavirus Cases Despite No Mask Mandate\">state&#038;rsquo<\/a>;s website, Grage wrote. After 2:00 a.m., Paul was shown to be losing by 13 votes.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Breccan F. Thies is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Minnesota city likely discarded 21 ballots in a close race<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":179,"featured_media":2374411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/IMG_2124-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[9807,43593,45874,45875],"class_list":["post-2374410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-ballots","tag-election-controversy","tag-mn-city","tag-tight-race"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/IMG_2124-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/179"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2374410"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2374414,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2374410\/revisions\/2374414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2374411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2374410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2374410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2374410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}