Election workers in Shakopee likely threw out 20 ballots by mistake when tabulating absentee ballots during the early voting period, a Scott County audit found.

The discrepancy sets up a legal challenge in a Minnesota House District where the DFL incumbent won by just 14 votes.

According to a preliminary report released by Scott County Attorney Ron Hocevar on Wednesday, Scott County election officials found a 21-vote discrepancy between voter check-ins and ballots received in Shakopee when reviewing election results. Of the uncounted ballots, 20 were in Precinct 10 and one was in Precinct 12A. Staff decided not to investigate the single missing vote in Precinct 12A because “it is not uncommon for one voter to check in and not vote,” the report states.

Hocevar said Shakopee’s absentee ballot board accepted the 20 ballots in Precinct 10 on Oct. 17, and they were not accounted for the next day when city staff were allowed to open the absentee ballots collected to date and begin tabulating them.

Hocevar said all early voting from Sept. 20 through Oct. 17 was done by “envelope voting,” in which ballots were placed in a security envelope and a signature envelope and set aside until “direct ballot voting” started on Oct. 18.

Before tabulating the absentee ballots, the number of envelopes must match with the number of accepted ballots in the Statewide Voter Registration System. Then they are removed from their signature envelopes, which are placed in a separate pile from the secrecy envelopes. Election workers then tabulate the ballots once all secrecy envelopes are opened.

Scott County’s review found the 20 missing ballots in Precinct 10 were likely never removed from their secrecy envelopes and were thrown in the trash. Despite the county’s efforts to track them down after they had been discarded, Hocevar said “the recycling bale had already been sent for shredding.”

Even if the county had successfully found the discarded secrecy envelopes, “it is unlikely that their chain of custody can be proven to assure they have not been tampered with,” Hocevar said.

Hocevar noted the audit is still ongoing but said “human error” is the apparent cause for the missing ballots.

“This unfortunate situation resulted in a level of confusion that should not have occurred,” Hocevar said.

All of the missing ballots were within Minnesota House District 54A, where a recount and subsequent certification found DFL Rep. Brad Tabke won by 14 votes over Republican challenger Aaron Paul.

The missing ballots surpass the margin of victory by six ballots. In a social media post, GOP House Speaker-designate Lisa Demuth said an election contest will be filed in the coming days.

“Today’s news confirms why we will be seeking an election contest to protect the integrity of the vote in District 54A with a new election,” Demuth said. “With 20 ballots missing and confirmation from Scott County that they will likely not be recovered, it’s impossible to declare a winner with a 14 vote margin. We appreciate the efforts by Scott County to investigate this matter and be transparent about their findings.”

It’s impossible to know what was on the 20 missing ballots, but of the 1,266 votes counted in the precinct where they were tossed, Tabke won by a 15-point margin.

House DFL Speaker-designate Melissa Hortman released the following statement:

“Rep. Brad Tabke won the election in District 54A by the count on Election Night and in the recount. We expect Rep. Tabke will prevail again in the election contest.”