Scott County will re-count some 21,000 ballots to decide the closest Minnesota legislative race of 2024 next week, and audit one Shakopee precinct after election officials noticed a small difference between the number of absentee ballots marked returned and the number they've counted.

Julie Hanson, Scott County's property and customer service manager, explained that in Shakopee's 10th Precinct, records show 329 absentee ballots were checked in, but election officials have done multiple counts and found only 309 ballots. It is not yet clear what happened, Hanson said.

Hanson said nonpartisan election staff and election judges from both political parties have been present throughout the process of opening and counting absentee ballots.

"We will be doing more audits, and working with the city and state to figure out what happened," she said after the Scott County canvassing board met Wednesday to certify election results.

The recount in the race for House District 54A will be held Nov. 21 at the Scott County Government Center, starting at 8:30 a.m.

DFL Rep. Brad Tabke of Shakopee leads Republican Aaron Paul by just 14 votes. That's within the threshold of 0.5% set by state law for an automatic recount in a state legislative race, although the losing candidate must still ask for one within 48 hours following a canvassing board meeting in public session.

The Minnesota House appears headed for a 67-67 split for the first time in decades.
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If a recount shows that Tabke's lead holds, the DFL and Republican caucuses will share power in the Minnesota House. But if Paul comes out of the recount with more votes than Tabke, Republicans will take control of the chamber.

Tabke was first elected in 2018 after serving as Shakopee's mayor. He has served two nonconsecutive terms and become prominent in the Legislature as an advocate for mass transit and sports betting.

Paul is a Bloomington police officer who has worked as a school resource officer.

Across Minnesota, county canvassing boards are meeting this week to certify the results from last week's elections, ahead of the State Canvassing Board's Nov. 21 meeting. County canvassing boards certify local races, and the state board certifies results from statewide and federal elections, as well as legislative elections or other local races that cross county lines.

Before canvassing boards meet, all election results are unofficial and sometimes shift in the days after the election as local election officials check and recheck results and make sure ballot information was transmitted properly.

Sherburne County will run a recount after some ballot totals initially failed to upload to the Secretary of State's website "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," County Administrator Bruce Messelt said.

The memory card subsequently sent some generic data designed to test the reporting system before the election, creating "inflated vote totals that later decreased once the error was discovered." In that race, DFL Rep. Dan Wolgamott holds a 191-vote lead over Republican Sue Ek.

Jenny Berg contributed to this report.