Ladies and Gentlemen,
I want to first thank those who attended the convention last Saturday and especially those who helped run the show. We conducted the necessary business and endorsed Frank Drake, a great candidate to take on Keith Ellison. Take a moment to visit & like Frank Drake’s facebook page. Unfortunately as with all things conducted by normal people, the process was not perfect and some mistakes were made.
The balloting for all three delegates and the two Rubio alternates went very well. The same cannot be said for the Cruz alternate slot. There was a discrepancy within SD46 which led to those votes initially being held to the side. After the discrepancy was resolved, the votes were counted. The final tally however had those votes tallied twice. The highest vote total for the Cruz alternate slot was for Christina Pierson, but as those that attended know, Anne Taylor was declared the winner at the convention.
We had planned to release the vote totals upon request last weekend, but a question from Christina led to this error being discovered and the delay. We used that time to confirm that all of the other winners were correctly reported. They were, and the vote totals are included in this email.
Jesse Pfliger who served as head teller asked me to relay that the counting error was not the fault of the other tellers. The double counting of SD46’s votes occurred on his tally sheet. He has taken responsibility for the error and has apologized to me and the district. I appreciate Jesse’s hard work and his honesty in owning up to the mistake.
After discovering the error we apologized to both Anne Taylor and Christina Pierson. Jesse and I did an unofficial recount with Anne (observed by Susan McDonald and Don Bumgarner) displaying that Christina Pierson was indeed the winner. Because we did not include a provision for a recount in our convention rules, Robert’s Rules of Order controls. In this case, after the convention adjourns, there is no procedural way to correct this mistake. With this information at hand, Anne Taylor has decided not to step aside. She decided to retain her position as the Cruz alternate.
Christina Pierson has asked that the 5th CD take no further action and focus on the upcoming elections. I am especially grateful to Christina for her grace and understanding in this difficult situation. If she decides to run at the state convention, she will have my full support.
Finally, on a personal note, I want to apologize to the entire district. I knew this would be a contested race. After hearing horror stories of “party bosses” in various parts of the state making unfair rule changes to inhibit the Ron Paul supporters in 2008, I wanted an open and fair convention. We made the nominations process as easy as possible, allowed people to change their minds as to which candidate slot they were voting for, and tried our best to ensure that everyone had access to the lists and data to conduct campaigns. We were not always as timely in this effort, and it is unfortunate that I have to say that ultimately we failed. Moving forward, I will recommend that we include a rule allowing for recounts or re-balloting.
-Dave Pascoe
Chairman, Minnesota 5th Congressional District Republican Party
RNC Delegate & Alternate Races
| Rubio Delegate Race | Rubio Alternate Race | |||
| Candidate Name | Vote Total | Candidate Name | Vote Total | |
| Brenda Alexander | 3 | Brenda Alexander | 3 | |
| Tim Anderson | 4 | Tim Anderson | 7 | |
| Scott Anderson | 4 | Scott Anderson | 6 | |
| Travis Anderson | 0 | Travis Anderson | 0 | |
| Corinne Braun | 1 | Corinne Braun | 2 | |
| Melanie Broida | 1 | Melanie Broida | 0 | |
| Eric Chad | 6 | Eric Chad | 12 | |
| Joshua Colburn | 1 | Joshua Colburn | 0 | |
| Frank Drake | 4 | Frank Drake | 6 | |
| Hans Hanson | 0 | Hans Hanson | 1 | |
| Michael Harad | 42 | Curtis Heyda | 3 | |
| Curtis Heyda | 5 | Allison Hopeman | 17 | |
| Allison Hopeman | 9 | Ryan Hopeman | 7 | |
| Ryan Hopeman | 4 | Joseph Jablonski | 9 | |
| Joseph Jablonski | 8 | Juliette Jordal | 11 | |
| Juliette Jordal | 5 | Michael Korman | 21 | |
| Michael Korman | 22 | Claire Leiter | 25 | |
| Claire Leiter | 11 | Bill Matekis | 12 | |
| Bill Matekis | 10 | Theresa Murray | 10 | |
| Susan McDonald | 54 | Gary Novitsky | 1 | |
| Theresa Murray | 10 | Rose Osterbauer | 0 | |
| Gary Novitsky | 0 | Javier Quito | 11 | |
| Rose Osterbauer | 0 | Leah Reiter-Proctor | 10 | |
| Javier Quito | 4 | Mathew Salzwedel | 12 | |
| Leah Reiter-Proctor | 7 | Kevin Sawyer | 7 | |
| Mathew Salzwedel | 10 | Jacqueline Smith-America | 19 | |
| Kevin Sawyer | 7 | K. Luke Wendt | 6 | |
| Jacqueline Smith-America | 10 | Jeremiah Wingstedt | 39 | |
| K. Luke Wendt | 4 | |||
| Jeremiah Wingstedt | 15 | |||
| Cruz Delegate Race | Cruz Alternate Race | ||||
| Candidate Name | Vote Total | Canddidate Name | Vote Total | Reported in Error | |
| Janice Bartko | 1 | Janice Bartko | 5 | ||
| Bryan Bjornson | 3 | Bryan Bjornson | 2 | ||
| Mathew Bowman | 12 | Mathew Bowman | 12 | ||
| Jennifer Breitinger | 17 | Jennifer Breitinger | 17 | ||
| Don Bumgarner | 57 | Dan Crowley | 6 | ||
| Dan Crowley | 4 | Dennis D. | 2 | ||
| Dennis D. | 2 | Joel Helgeson | 10 | ||
| Joel Helgeson | 7 | Christina Pierson | 44 | 42 | |
| Christina Pierson | 7 | Anne Taylor | 31 | 44 | |
| Anne Taylor | 20 | ||||
| Delegate Denotation | |||||
| Highest Vote, Not Delegate | |||||