Mike Lindell is withholding the $825,000 payment required to move a recount and audit of ballots cast in the Republican primary for Minnesota governor, saying the process proposed by the Secretary of State's office is unlawful. His campaign said the money was “primed and ready to cover the costs” but had not been submitted because the planned recount would not cover every vote in the race.
The deadline to submit the request was Monday, and Lindell asked the state to waive it until a court can rule on the recount’s parameters. He finished second to Lisa Demuth in the current results and said on Wednesday that he would personally pay for the recount, keeping alive a challenge that he first framed on primary night Aug. 11, when he said he would not concede until every vote was counted.
The dispute turns on scope. Lindell's campaign says election officials intend to recount only the votes cast for Lindell and Demuth, not all the votes cast in the Republican gubernatorial primary, and argues that approach violates Minnesota law. The Secretary of State's office has said its contingency plan follows state law and administrative rules and has been used in similar form for the past two decades. Cassondra Knudson said the office provided the plan after it was approved by the State Canvassing Board on August 18.
That plan calls for a statewide hand recount if a request is made, with Paul Linnell serving as the state recount official and the process open to the public and media. Under Minnesota law, an apparent losing candidate must submit a request for a discretionary recount along with the funds to cover the cost within five days of the canvass of a primary election. The campaign argues the state’s interpretation would narrow the recount too far, but no official findings of fraud or irregularity have been made in the Minnesota primary results.
The practical question now is whether a court moves first or the deadline controls. If a judge does not intervene before the payment requirement becomes final, the recount Lindell wants may never start under the terms he is pressing for. If the court does step in, the fight over how many ballots must be recounted could decide whether the Republican primary for Minnesota governor proceeds on the state’s schedule or gets reset by litigation.
The race carries wider weight because the Republican nominee will face Amy Klobuchar in the Nov. 3 general election to succeed Tim Walz. State election officials say 179,683 people voted for Demuth and 134,282 cast ballots for Lindell, numbers that underscore why the recount request matters now: it is the only route left for Lindell to force a broader review, and he is refusing to pay for the version of the recount the state has laid out.
