SAINT PAUL - 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.