Clerical error for House District 67A impacts ballots in 11 Ramsey County precincts
The Elections Office has filed an Errors and Omissions Petition with Minnesota Supreme Court on Sept. 27 seeking resolution.
Ramsey County elections officials have identified and are addressing a clerical error listing an incorrect candidate for House District 67A. The issue involves all ballots for the 11 precincts in Ramsey County located in District 67A.
The issue was identified Friday, Sept. 23, as absentee voting began. Ballots erroneously list Beverly Peterson as the Republican Party candidate for House District 67A instead of Scott Hesselgrave. The Ramsey County Elections Office was notified by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office on Aug. 29 that Hesselgrave had been certified as the Republican Party’s new candidate and that ballots for the general election should be updated with Hesselgrave’s name.
After discovering the error, Ramsey County immediately began an internal review and determined the updated file was not sent to the ballot printer earlier this month. Officials have reviewed all other ballots and found no other issues. The Elections Office received all general election ballots on Sept. 22.
Ramsey County today filed an Errors and Omissions Petition with the Minnesota Supreme Court asking the court to determine a resolution. Per state statute 204B.44, only the Supreme Court has authority to determine how to resolve ballot errors. Ramsey County must continue to issue the erroneous ballots to absentee voters by mail and in person until a resolution is determined.
As of close of business Sept. 26, 1,077 absentee ballots with the error had been issued to voters. In Minnesota, any voter who casts an absentee ballot can replace their ballot with a new one up until one week before Election Day. Voters in these precincts who have requested, received or voted already with an absentee ballot should visit ramseycounty.us/Elections for updates on the legal resolution. Ramsey County has asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to approve a process that would allow voters who cast a ballot with the wrong candidate’s name on it to obtain and cast corrected ballots if they wish to do so.
Statement from Ramsey County
“Ramsey County sincerely regrets this error and apologizes to both the voters of District 67A and the candidates impacted by this oversight. Upon learning of this error, we immediately began an internal audit to identify where the error occurred and today formally began the legal process to resolve the issue. Ramsey County elections staff is preparing to implement a resolution as soon as one is identified by the court and is taking steps to update internal procedures to ensure an error does not happen again. It’s imperative that every vote count.”