GOP candidate in Minnesota House District 54A says he will not appeal election challenge

Friday afternoon, Aaron Paul, the Republican candidate for the Minnesota House of Representatives seat in District 54A, said he will not be appealing the election challenge, which ruled in favor of his DFL opponent, Brad Tabke.

“While I still have grave concerns about the administration of the 54A election, and disagree with the district court’s ruling last week, I have decided against pursuing an appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. Even Brad Tabke agrees that the court’s opinion is only advisory, and the legislature still retains its constitutional authority to determine its members,” said Paul in a statement.

The seat has been a contentious battle post-election, which started with a hand recount after the election due to election night results reporting discrepancies.

After the recount, Tabke led by 14 votes.

However, more problems arose after a Scott County audit found that election workers in Shakopee likely threw out 20 ballots by mistake when tabulating absentee ballots during the early voting period. Despite trying, the county said the ballots could not be recovered as “the recycling bale had already been sent for shredding.”

That set up a legal showdown for the seat with an election contest filed on behalf of Paul by the Minnesota House GOP for a new election.

On Jan. 14, a judge ruled in the case in favor of Tabke, rejecting the request to nullify the results and hold a special election, saying Paul was unable to prove “his three election contest grounds by the greater weight of evidence,” with the court ruling there was no basis in fact or law for holding a special election.

As part of the court case, 12 of the 20 voters from the Shakopee Precinct-10, whose absentee ballots went uncounted, were asked to testify in court.

According to Scott County, six testified they had voted for Paul, while the other six testified they had voted for Tabke.

According to the court, they then took into consideration the nine other voters who did not testify and considered those votes to be counted toward Paul. However, even with the 15 extra votes, Tabke still would have received more votes than Paul, 10,979 to 10,965, a 12-vote difference.

Due to the court’s decision, Tabke remained the incumbent for House seat 54A and the November election results will be considered valid.

“The election in 54A has been nothing short of a disaster: destroyed ballots, failure to follow election policies, posting of inaccurate and incomplete results, and serious questions about election data have cast significant doubt on the integrity of the result. Voters in Shakopee deserve certainty and an election process that leaves no room for doubt about the legitimacy of the results. In my mind, there should still be another election, and the legislature has the ability to make that happen. An appeal would not result in a new election, and that reality weighed heavily in my decision,” Paul added.

But the drama doesn’t end there, with the Minnesota House at odds over a quorum, another matter that went to the courts and was also ruled on Friday. The Minnesota Supreme Court says that 68 members are necessary for a quorum to conduct business on the house floor.

So far, Minnesota House DFL lawmakers have boycotted the session, where the Republicans have a 67-66 seat advantage, in part over Tabke’s seat. They claim that House Republicans would try to kick Tabke out.

There is another special election that could create a tied house — the seat for House District 40B. The DFL candidate who won was later disqualified when a judge ruled he didn’t actually live in that district. Due to court proceedings related to it, a new date has yet to be determined for the special election.