Dan Wolgamott Retains Minnesota House Seat After Sherburne County Completes Recount

(KNSI) – Incumbent Democrat Representative Dan Wolgamott will keep his seat after Sherburne County completed a partial recount on Monday.

Election officials hand recounted 2,655 ballots cast in the county for the Minnesota House District 14B race and confirmed the results calculated on election night between Wolgamott and Republican challenger Sue Ek. Unofficial results before the recount showed Wolgamott with a 191-vote lead over Ek.

A bipartisan panel of election judges and candidate representatives agreed to take one vote from Wolgamott due to voter intent. Neither candidate challenged any ballots.

The margin of victory in the House 14B race was not close enough to trigger a publicly funded recount, however, the county offered to pay for a discretionary candidate recount because of an election
night reporting problem that prevented all vote totals from being transmitted to the Secretary of State. The snafu resulted in a two-day delay in getting the results posted. At one point, the state results showed Ek winning by four votes, then Wolgamott up by 28. Two days later, the final numbers showed Wolgamott up by 191 votes.

___