Mike Lindell battled with Minnesota officials over the potential governor’s race recount terms.
According to CBS News, as per the statement released by the Lindell campaign on Monday, August 24, the 65-year-old is withholding the payment required for the recount and audit of ballots cast in the Minnesota primary.
The campaign said that it has $825,000 ready for recounts of the Republican primary for Minnesota governor, but it is not handing it to the Secretary of State’s office for the “unlawful” recount process proposal.
This came after the MyPillow founder, who finished second to Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, offered on Wednesday, August 19, to personally pay for the recount.
After which Secretary of State General Counsel Lauren Bethke set Monday as the deadline for Lindell to submit the request.
Secretary of State office ‘moved the goalpost’
A statement from Lindell reads, "With $825,000 wired and ready to fund the largest privately financed statewide recount in Minnesota history, the Office of the Secretary of State moved the goalposts. Hours before the payment deadline, the state narrowed the recount to two of the seven Republican candidates on the ballot, a change the Lindell campaign says violates Minnesota law.”
The campaign said state officials intend to recount only the votes cast for Lindell and Demuth and not all the votes cast in the Republican gubernatorial primary, while excluding votes for other candidates in the race.
"The actions taken by the Secretary of State put Mike Lindell in an untenable position," Lindell's campaign added.
The campaign argues that the scope of the recount violates Minnesota law, citing a provision that defines a recount as determining "the number of votes validly cast for the office or question to be recounted."
Lindell is asking the state to waive the payment deadline until a court can rule on the parameters of the recount proposed by election officials.
