Judge upholds DFL Rep. Brad Tabke’s win in House District 54A

On Tuesday, a judge rejected a request to nullify the results of Minnesota’s House District 54A race and hold a special election, upholding DFL Rep. Brad Tabke’s win.

A court ruling for the position found that “there is no basis in fact or law for holding a special election,” and the “election is not invalid.” The full ruling can be found at the bottom of this article.

Back in December, GOP candidate for the 54A seat Aaron Paul had requested a special election after Scott County officials said nearly two dozen ballots were accidentally discarded without being counted in the race. 

Paul had trailed incumbent Tabke by 14 votes after a hand recount.

Court documents state Paul alleged three reasons for holding the special election, including uncertainty regarding which candidate received the most legal votes, alleged election officials had deviated materially from proper election procedures which directly impacted election results and that Scott County officials engaged in deliberate, serious and material violations of Minnesota election law.

However, the court said 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 will remain the incumbent for House seat 54A and the November election results will be considered valid.

“The judge’s orders are clear and decisive. We won this election, and there’s no reason to doubt it. The judge has reconfirmed I am a member of this legislature,” Tabke said in a statement. “I’m ready to get to work today for Shakopee and for Minnesota.”

Speaker-designate Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, issued the following statement regarding the ruling on Tuesday:

“The underlying facts of the case remain unchanged: there were 20 ballots destroyed in a race decided by just 14 votes. The judge relies on testimony from voters, while downplaying the inconsistencies and lack of absolute certainty that the correct set of voters was identified. Furthermore, allowing this decision to stand would set the precedent moving forward that voters must violate their fundamental right to a secret ballot in order to clear up cases where ballots are destroyed, and may increase the likelihood of bad actors choosing to destroy certain sets of ballots in tight races. Ultimately the Minnesota Constitution is clear that ‘Each house shall be the judge of the election returns and eligibility of its own members.’ We will evaluate this lengthy ruling and consider options in the coming days.”

DFL leaders also sounded off on the judge’s order:

“The voters and the courts have both spoken, and it is time for Republicans to accept that they lost this election. Defying the courts and the voters to overturn an election would be an outrageous and illegitimate abuse of power. House Republicans should come back from the brink and abandon this outrageous partisan power grab. A partisan vote by Republican legislators to overturn this election cannot be tolerated and will not go unanswered.”

Ken Martin, Chair of the Minnesota DFL