State Canvassing Board certifies election results; pair of publicly funded House recounts coming

Confirmation of almost all House election results is complete. However, recounts will occur in two contests.

The State Canvassing Board unanimously certified the 2022 General Election results Tuesday, including state offices, judicial offices and eight U.S. House of Representatives’ races.

As things currently stand in Minnesota, the DFL will have a 70-64 seat advantage in the House and a 34-33 edge in the Senate when the 2023 session begins Jan. 3. However, by law, a couple races separated by less than one-half of 1 percent are eligible for publicly funded recounts if requested by the losing candidate by Dec. 1:

• 3A: Republican Roger Skraba leads Rep. Rob Ecklund (DFL-International Falls) 10,868-10,853 (49.98%-49.91%) with 22 write-in votes; and
• 3B: Republican Natalie Zeleznikar leads Rep. Mary Murphy (DFL-Hermantown) 10,812-10,777 (50.01%-49.85%) with 31 write-in votes.

"Right before the meeting I got that notification, so there will be recounts in both House District 3A and 3B," said State Elections Director David Maeda. Recount activity is to begin next week, and the canvassing board is scheduled to reconvene Dec. 9 to certify the recounted races.

Candidates can pay for a recount themselves for larger margins. "We've been notified of one state Senate candidate that might request a discretionary recount," Maeda said, adding the request must be made by Thursday.

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More than 2.52 million votes were cast in the General Election, including more than 671,000 absentee. During the last non-presidential election in 2018, voter turnout was around 2.6 million, including about 637,000 absentee.