Elections judges in Ramsey County failed to count 318 absentee ballots that were legally cast in the 2020 general election, but the error does not appear to have affected the outcome of any races, officials say.
The Ramsey County Elections Canvassing Board held an emergency meeting Wednesday to acknowledge an “obvious error” in processing the ballots, which were found Nov. 13 in a sealed box as part of the county’s post-election review, according to the canvassing board.
“Based on the precinct locations identified on the signature envelopes of the 318 absentee ballots, it does not appear possible that the outcome of any election contest in Ramsey County could be altered by these ballots alone,” the board said in a statement.
Because Minnesota’s legal window for counting absentee votes has passed, the ballots can only be processed by order of a judge at the request of a candidate whose race was affected. The board is working to notify 131 candidates.
The sealed, unprocessed ballots, which were cast Oct. 31 at the Ramsey County Elections office in St. Paul, were found in a box that “had been misplaced in an area of a secure storage facility designated for sealed boxes of processed ballots,” according to the canvassing board.
The board’s review process has not identified any other errors in processing ballots from the election, in which 297,159 Ramsey County residents voted.