Minnesota Democrats Pull Major Endorsement Amid Electronic Voting Machine Error Allegations

(Easton Green/The Minnesota Daily via AP)

The Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party revoked its endorsement of progressive state Sen. Omar Fateh to be the next mayor of Minneapolis, a highly surprising endorsement that came at the expense of incumbent Mayor Jacob Frey – who is alleging an electronic voting system failure was responsible.

Minnesota DFL Chairman Richard Carlbom released a statement on Thursday saying, “After a thoughtful and transparent review of the challenges, the Constitution, Bylaws & Rules Committee found substantial failures in the Minneapolis Convention’s voting process on July 19th, including an acknowledgement that a mayoral candidate was errantly eliminated from contention.”

Carlbom added, “Now it’s time to turn our focus to unity and our common goal: electing DFL leaders focused on making life more affordable for Minnesotans and holding Republicans accountable for the chaos and confusion they’ve unleashed on Minnesotans.”

Frey officially challenged Fateh’s endorsement earlier in the month, alleging an “extraordinarily high number of missing or uncounted votes produced by the highly flawed and untested electronic voting system.”

“Only 578 votes were recorded in the mayoral ballot conducted using the electronic balloting system, despite the fact that over 1,000 delegates and alternates were checked in at the time of the first ballot,” Frey’s campaign said in its challenge.

Fateh is running to the left of Frey as a Democratic Socialist, and his endorsement shocked many in the Democratic Party establishment, in which Frey has long been considered a rising star.