Shakopee area legislative race headed for recount in contest that could determine control of Minnesota House

A legislative race in the Shakopee area is headed for an automatic recount, following rescanning of ballots Friday night that shows the vote margin between the two contenders within the threshold set by state law for a taxpayer-funded recount.

According to Friday’s count, DFL Rep. Brad Tabke is 14 votes ahead of Republican challenger Aaron Paul. The rescanning, conducted by Scott County officials, provided Tabke with one additional vote than shown by Tuesday’s results, which had given him a 13-vote margin over Paul.

The difference between the votes received by the two candidates works out to 0.06 percentage points, within the threshold of 0.5% set by state law for an automatic recount in a state legislative race.

The outcome for the District 54A seat, along with results of a tight race for the District 14B seat in the St. Cloud area, will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the House. If the current leaders in both races prevail — both of them DFLers — the House would be evenly divided with 67 DFLers and 67 Republicans.

Scott County officials said some of the ballots cast in Shakopee had to be rescanned after they were caught in a scanning machine malfunction following a ballot distribution error.

According to Tuesday’s results, Paul won several precincts with small margins, while Tabke had a nearly 11-point margin in northeast Shakopee and a 14-point margin in one precinct north of Shakopee High School. In one precinct near Canterbury Park, the two candidates were separated by a single vote.

The House race in District 14B between DFL Rep. Dan Wolgamott and GOP challenger Sue Ek was considered close enough to trigger an automatic recount until officials updated results Thursday night.

After county officials included absentee ballots that had been counted but not accurately uploaded to the Secretary of State’s website on election night, Wolgamott’s lead over Ek grew to 191 votes and pushed the race outside the threshold for a taxpayer-funded recount. Ek could pay for a recount in the race for that seat, representing central St. Cloud and surrounding Minden and Haven townships.

The updated results prompted Minnesota Republican Party Chair David Hann to call for the Secretary of State’s Office to investigate the results of the 14B race and provide funds for a recount.

Staff writers Eva Herscowitz and Jenny Berg contributed to this story.