Minnesota Says Mike Lindell Missed the Deadline to Initiate His Recount

Minnesota will not recount the results of the Republican gubernatorial primary after MyPillow founder Mike Lindell failed to meet a deadline to file paperwork and submit payment, a spokesperson for the Minnesota secretary of state’s office told NOTUS Tuesday.

Lindell, a bedding magnate who rose to prominence as one of the highest-profile boosters of President Donald Trump’s unfounded claims of widespread election fraud in the 2020 election, pushed for a recount following his loss in the primary this month.

Lindell had said he would privately fund the recount but this week backed off wiring the $825,000 fee to state officials. His campaign said in a news release Monday that it was because of the recount rules laid out by the secretary of state’s office.

Lindell alleged that Steve Simon, Minnesota’s top election official, narrowed the recount’s scope: Instead of reexamining all ballots, the recount would only cover those cast for Lindell and the winner of the primary, Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, and not for the other five Republican gubernatorial candidates.

The decision incensed Lindell, who alleged his team had found “anomalies” that applied “to all of the candidates, not simply Lindell and Demuth.”

Lindell sued Simon and the Minnesota State Canvassing Board on Monday as a last-ditch attempt to keep the recount effort alive, according to Minnesota secretary of state spokesperson Cassondra Knudson. Simon’s office presented Lindell the contingent recount plan after the State Canvassing Board approved it Aug. 18, Knudson said, giving him plenty of time to dispute it before the deadline passed Monday.

“The plan follows state law and administrative rules on recount procedures and is consistent with previous recount plans,” Knudson said.

Lindell remains an ardent believer in widely debunked claims of voter fraud. He has endured social media bans and legal trouble over his activism, including a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit from Dominion Voting Systems, now known as Liberty Vote.

But at least one high-profile backer is still embracing Lindell: Trump, who endorsed the Minnesota businessman’s gubernatorial bid last month, saying, “Nobody has sacrificed more than Mike Lindell in fighting for our country, especially when it comes to Election Integrity.”

Lindell has refused to concede to Demuth since the Aug. 11 election, when he finished second with 32% of the vote, behind Demuth, with 43%, according to the secretary of state.

He released a statement a week later that he would privately fund a recount and audit of “every paper ballot cast in the Aug. 11, 2026 Republican primary election for Governor of Minnesota.” Lindell claimed his team identified “vote totals that moved backwards during the reporting,” “counties reporting more votes than cast” and “unusual synchronized vote totals across all seven Republican candidates” — which he alleges are signs of tampering with the results that could sway the vote in his favor.

Lindell’s campaign said Monday that under the recount rules laid out by state officials, Democratic ballots would not be recounted, “even though the same ballot form was used for both gubernatorial primaries.” The actions, his campaign added, put Lindell in an “untenable position.”

If he were to have submitted the $825,000 under the new scope, the recount would “not be conducted in a lawful manner nor would it address the election anomalies cited by his team,” the Monday press release said. And if Lindell fought for a wider scope, he would not meet a payment deadline “for the unlawful recount.”

Simon has previously pushed back against federal inquiries into the state’s election system, saying “Minnesota’s elections are fair, accurate, honest, and secure.”

Demuth will face Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who won the Democratic nomination by a wide margin, in November.

This story has been updated to reflect that the state will not initiate a recount.