Rep. Peggy Bennett claims Secretary of State ballot error is costing her votes; Secretary of State’s office confirms in statement

(ABC 6 News) — Friday marked the first day of early voting in Minnesota, and Rep. Peggy Bennett (R-Albert Lea) is claiming that she is already losing votes due to a ballot processing error made by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office.

According to a press release, Bennett was alerted to the problem after a Faribault County supporter contacted her asking when she became a Democrat.

The Republican supporter cast his ballot this morning and voted for the Republican state representative candidate that was inaccurately listed on his ballot – her Democrat opponent. The Republican National Committee also received reports of the error.

“On the heels of the news that more than 1,000 non-citizens were put onto Minnesota’s new automatic voter registration system, Faribault County voters in House District 23A are now being handed ballots that have messed up my party affiliation,” Bennett said via a press release. “It is yet another example of a broken government that shows us more and more that it is rarely working for the people. Faribault County residents should know that I have not switched political parties, and I have always been, and will continue to be, a Republican who will fight for your rights and freedoms.”

A Faribault County sample ballot on the Secretary of State’s website shows the error, seen here. 

Bennett wonders how many more votes she’s lost today due to the Secretary of State’s blunder. She has been told someone from Secretary Simon’s office has been sent to help Faribault County deal with the problem.

“I want to make it clear; this is not the fault of anyone at the Faribault County Auditor’s Office, and they have been working hard all day to clean up a mess they didn’t create,” Bennett said via a press release. “It is just disappointing that these ballots weren’t doubled checked for errors by the Secretary of State’s Office before being printed. Election integrity matters, and distributing inaccurate ballots to the county certainly undermines election integrity in our state.” 

The Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State offered the following statement regarding the situation:

The Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State is aware of a localized ballot error impacting Faribault County voters in State Representative District 23A. The ballots incorrectly identify the candidates’ parties. Seventeen ballots were issued with this error. County officials discovered the misprint on September 20 and will be pursuing corrective action through the courts including instructions for voters who already received and returned an incorrect ballot to ensure their vote is counted correctly.

This error is limited only to ballots issued by Faribault County. The ballots for State Representative District 23A issued by Freeborn, Steele, and Waseca counties accurately list the candidates’ parties.

The Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State does not prepare ballots for counties. Each of Minnesota’s 87 counties are responsible for preparing ballots in collaboration with their ballot programming and printing vendors, including the sample ballots posted to mnvotes.gov.

The Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State is responsible for providing a list of certified candidate names to all counties, and that certification along with political party affiliation was provided accurately and on time. In addition, recognizing the importance of accuracy, the office has provided extra training and resources this year to all counties on how to proof ballots to ensure that errors like this are not missed in the proofing process. In every election, despite the best efforts of our hard-working county election officials, mistakes happen. Our office is thankful for the swift action of Faribault County officials after learning of the error and is committed to partnering with them where appropriate to ensure this mistake is remedied for all impacted voters as soon as possible.