Misprinted MN County Ballots Label GOP Candidate As Democrat

A Minnesota county sent out ballots on Friday that mislabeled the Republican candidate as Democrat and the Democrat candidate as a Republican.

Peggy Bennett, an incumbent Republican state representative running in the District 23A race, was labeled on ballots in Faribault County as a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) party, which is affiliated with the Democratic Party as laid out on DFL’s website. Bennett’s opponent, Joe Staloch, was listed as the Republican candidate despite being a Democrat. A copy of the incorrect ballot can be found on the Secretary of State’s website.

The Secretary of State’s office said in a release on Friday that “seventeen ballots were issued with this error.” Ballots for State Representative District 23A “issued by Freeborn, Steele, and Waseca counties accurately list the candidates’ parties,” the office claimed.

Bennett became aware of the issue after a Republican supporter in Faribault County “contacted her asking when she became a Democrat,” according to a Friday press release from Bennett. The supporter cast his ballot for Staloch, who was listed as the Republican candidate.

Early voting in the state began on Sept. 20.

Bennett reassured her constituents that she remains a Republican in a statement.

“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.

“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. “It is just disappointing that these ballots weren’t doubled checked for errors by the Secretary of State’s office before being printed,” Bennet’s statement continued.

“Election integrity matters, and distributing inaccurate ballots to the county certainly undermines election integrity in our state,” she concluded.

The Secretary of State’s office contends that it is not responsible for the error, arguing it provides “a list of certified candidate names to all counties, and that certification along with political party affiliation was provided accurately and on time.”

“The office of the Minnesota Secretary of State does not prepare ballots for counties,” the office said in a statement. “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 Secretary of State’s office said the county would 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.”