Swift County is seeking a court order to reinstate 11 candidates and “print and distribute new ballots” for the Nov. 5 general election Kerkhoven mayor, Kerkhoven City Council election and Benson School Board races.

Swift County Attorney Danielle Olson filed Petitions for Errors and Omission with the Eighth Judicial District Court in Swift County seeking to correct affidavits of candidacy and reinstate the candidates.

The affidavits were incorrectly accepted after “the Swift County Election Administrator, Mr. (Joe) Tschida, or others, at his request, altered and filled in” some of the mandatory information that was missing, according to a statement from Olson. Additionally, the information was added after the deadline for filing.

Olson further wrote, “Based on that information, the Affidavits are considered incomplete and rejected by the Minnesota Secretary of State.”

A hearing in the matter has been set for Sept. 5 in a Meeker County courtroom before Judge Allison T. Whalen. Under Minnesota election law, the district court may be petitioned for correction of “errors, omissions or wrongful acts” in the case of county, municipal or school district offices.

According to the filings, if the court does not order a correction, no candidates will be on the ballot for Benson School Board, resulting in a default write-in election. Similarly, there will be no listed candidates running for mayor in Kerkhoven and four of the six candidates who filed to run for two Kerkhoven City Council seats would be excluded from the ballot.

In her statement to the West Central Tribune and others on Friday, Olson stated the Minnesota Secretary of State and her office found that multiple affidavits for candidacy should have initially been rejected by Tschida due to errors or omissions, largely with regard to email addresses.

A staff member in Tschida’s office advised the West Central Tribune on Friday that he was unavailable for comment as he is out of office until Tuesday.

According to two civil petitions filed by Olson on Thursday, Aug. 29, Tschida accepted all five affidavits of candidacy for the Benson School District despite observing that each one had incorrect or missing information regarding email addresses for each candidate.

According to Olson’s filing, Tschida wrote in the required information on the sworn affidavits for candidates Gary Williams and Marin J. Kowal. Another staff member allegedly altered the information for a third candidate, Melissa Wrobleski.

Two unaltered affidavits were also listed as rejected by the Secretary of State’s Office, due to the fact that one candidate had omitted an email address, and the other had erroneously used a government-issued email address.

Tschida also altered six of the eight affidavits filed by candidates running for election in the city of Kerkhoven, according to the other filed civil petition.

Phone numbers and email addresses were incomplete or missing. According to Olson’s filing, Tschida contacted the Kerkhoven City Clerk’s Office to obtain the missing information on four of the six candidates, and later received two updated affidavits from the other two candidates.

The affidavits altered by Tschida were then submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office. According to both of the filed petitions, it was only after the Secretary of State’s Office found out that Tschida had altered the affidavits that they “rejected” them.

For Kerkhoven City Council, only Woody Nelson and Ashley Dwire submitted affidavits that were complete and accepted. They will appear on the ballot. Court action will determine if Leif Bagnet, Michelle Folkerts, Tyler Kalkebrenner and Bob Kappes are on the ballot.

Andy Thorson and Kordell VanHeuveln filed to run for Kerkhoven mayor but will need court action to be reinstated on the ballot.

The five people who filed to run for Benson School Board are Marin J. Kowal, Bill McGreary, Angela Nissen, Gary Williams and Melissa Wrobleski. None of them will be on the ballot unless the court orders reinstatement.

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