Minnesota Supreme Court rejects Lindell’s request for full recount

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(The Center Square) – The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled against GOP candidate Mike Lindell’s request for a full recount of the Aug. 11 gubernatorial primary.

The court stated it was without merit to do a full recount, instead siding with the state-approved partial recount plan.

“Lindell argues that he is entitled to a full recount for both the Democratic and Republican primary races for governor ‘to ensure that there are no anomalies in the ballots, whether the votes cast are for the Democratic or Republican primaries,’ and that this recount must include 'the recording of votes for every candidate,’” said Chief Justice Natalie E. Hudson in the six-page ruling. “But Lindell's focus on alleged anomalies confuses the purpose of a manual recount with an election contest.”

The ruling was released on Saturday. The MyPillow founder said later that day that he would appeal the ruling.

“My name was on 1,100,000 ballots and they all need to be looked at and counted,” Lindell said in an interview.

Lindell was proposing to independently pay the full costs of the discretionary recount, which was estimated at $825,000.

If that had happened, it would have been the largest privately-financed statewide recount in Minnesota history.

“Under the state’s ‘contingent plan,’ only the votes for Mike Lindell and Lisa Demuth would be counted. The votes cast for the other five Republican candidates would not. Neither would the Democratic primary ballots—despite being printed on the same ballot form,” said Lindell’s campaign in a recent statement.

Lindell, who has long pushed for getting rid of election voting machines, sued the Minnesota secretary of state just last week over narrowing the scope of the recount—a plan that was announced the same day as the recount deadline of Aug. 24.

“Narrowing the scope does not shrink the recount—it disables it,” his campaign added.

In the primary, Lindell was beat out by Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth. Demuth ended with 179,683 votes compared to Lindell’s 134,282. That is a difference of 45,401 votes.

Lindell was seeking the recount after alleging “multiple abnormalities.”

“One of the few good election laws Minnesota does have, is that as a candidate, I have the right to completely audit and hand count every ballot in the state, and I am going to exercise that right to the full extent of the law,” Lindell said following the primary.