1 week Ago By Esme Murphy
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Control of Minnesota's House of Representatives hinges on the outcome of races in two districts, and both districts could go into recounts.
Right now, DFL and Republican candidates each won 67 races. On election night, a page on the Minnesota secretary of state's website showed 100% of the vote was in for Minnesota House District 14B, with Republican Sue Ek four votes ahead. "I thought I had won, and my friends and people at the party were ecstatic," Ek said.
But when the page refreshed, the results showed Democratic incumbent Dan Wolgamott was ahead with a 191-vote lead. "People are calling, texting, emailing saying, 'What happened? This doesn't make sense.' So we do need to get to the bottom of it," she said.
Sherburne County said in a statement there had been an upload failure, and the county will pay for a recount for the sake of transparency. In Scott County, it looked as if Republican Aaron Paul was on the way to beating incumbent Democratic Rep. Brad Tabke.
But when votes were posted, and after screening, Tabke was 14 votes ahead. Scott County Elections Manager Julie Hanson also blames a computer malfunction. "I believe what we had was a scanner jam and it happened a few times and they weren't counted properly," Hanson said.
Results in these two districts will decide who controls the House. Republican House Speaker-designate Lisa Demuth says the discrepancies "are intolerable and unacceptable." And while the results are raising a lot of questions, elections officials in both counties say this is an example of the system catching malfunctions and ultimately working.
We'll learn if these House races go to recounts later this week. WCCO was unable to reach the Minnesota secretary of state's office on Monday because it was a federal holiday. Esme Murphy, a reporter and Sunday morning anchor for WCCO-TV, has been a member of the WCCO-TV staff since December 1990.
She is also a weekend talk show host on WCCO Radio. Born and raised in New York City, Esme ventured into reporting after graduating from Harvard University..
