Smattering of ballots trickle into auditor's office

As of Monday afternoon, six days after the election, exactly eight late mail ballots had arrived at the Carlton County auditor’s office, not exactly a game changer.

Although the Pine Knot News did not receive a final report from the auditor’s office after the deadline Tuesday, a look at the Secretary of State’s website shows both the Democrat and Republican presidential candidates each gained four votes. All late ballots had to be postmarked on or before Election Day and received by the end of the day Nov. 10 via mail.

None of the late ballots affected the two races in Carlton County that are separated by razor-thin margins: the Moose Lake school board — where there were three open spots and one vote separates the third- and fourth-place winners — or Wrenshall, where two votes separate the winner and

runner-up in the special election for Wrenshall city council

member-at-large.

County chief deputy auditor/treasurer Kelly Lampel said recounts are not automatic, but the losing candidate may request one. In the case of local races which fall within the publicly funded recount threshold, a written request must be filed with the filing officer by 5 p.m. on the seventh day after the canvass of a special or general election (M.S. 204C.36, subd. 1).

“Wrenshall City has contacted us about a recount, but the written request has not been received,” Lampel said. “I would suspect that others will request recounts once the results are official.”

It wasn’t only a few ballots that got wrapped up after Election Day.

The Carlton school board is still waiting to find out who got the most write-in votes in the Nov. 3 election, because only two candidates ran for three open seats on the board. Last week the auditor’s office said it was still compiling names from the many early absentee and mail ballots cast in that election. The Carlton school board is set to canvass the votes on Friday morning, so the write-in votes should be public knowledge by that time.

“The candidate with the most votes may either accept or decline the position,” Carlton superintendent John Engstrom said. “If they accept, we’re done. If they decline, then the board will set up a process [dictated by the Minnesota School Board Association] to fill the seat.”

The auditor’s office also updated the total number of registered voters in Carlton County. Including those who registered on and in the two weeks before Election Day, Carlton County has an unofficial total of 23,906 registered voters. Adding an additional eight votes to last week’s total of 20,457 voters on Nov. 3 puts the county’s actual voter turnout at roughly 85.6 percent for the 2020 General Election. Statewide, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said the turnout was close to 78 percent, but that was before all the mail ballots were in and all the same-day registrations were tallied.

As of Monday, Lampel said they had not found anyone who had voted twice, but they were still entering all the roster information from the polling places.

An election judge working at Cloquet’s Ward 1 polling site (Journey Church) received a positive test result for Covid-19. City officials contacted election workers who were at the polling site as well as Journey Church.

The election worker showed no symptoms or signs until days after Election Day, wore a mask, and took all prescribed precautions.

City officials urge anyone with symptoms who voted at this site to contact their medical practitioner.

Contact Cloquet city administrator Tim Peterson at [email protected] or (218) 879-3347 with any questions.