Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow and a supporter of Donald Trump, has stated that he is ready to personally fund a recount and audit of all paper ballots in Minnesota's Republican gubernatorial primary, despite his loss. He announced this in a statement on Wednesday.
Lindell finished a distant second to Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth in last week's vote. He cited a Minnesota law that he says gives candidates the right to request a full hand count, even if the results fall outside the margin required for a state-funded recount.
"One of the few good election laws Minnesota does have is that as a candidate, I have the right to completely audit and hand-count every ballot in the state," Lindell said in a press release, adding that he intends to use that right "to the full extent of the law."
Despite Trump's endorsement, Lindell was defeated by Demuth by roughly 11 percentage points in the Republican primary on August 11, a margin far beyond the 0.25% threshold that would trigger an automatic state-funded recount. Because the gap is wider than the threshold, Lindell would need to formally request the recount and cover its cost himself.
This announcement comes after Lindell refused last week to concede the primary, despite trailing by a double-digit margin. The Associated Press called the race for Demuth late on election night. Lindell's campaign alleged "irregularities identified in election-night electronic reporting data" in the press release.
According to CBS News, Minnesota Secretary of State General Counsel Lauren Bethke estimated in a Tuesday letter to Lindell that a full recount of the governor and lieutenant governor races would cost roughly $825,000. The letter reportedly gives him until August 24 to submit both the request and payment to the secretary of state's office.
This is the latest in a series of election-related claims by Lindell. He has built his political career around the lie that Trump's 2020 defeat resulted from a rigged and stolen election, and has said he spent tens of millions of dollars pursuing that conspiracy theory through lawsuits, documentaries, and conferences. Courts have repeatedly rejected those claims.
Last month, Lindell settled a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit filed by voting technology company Liberty Vote, formerly known as Dominion Voting Systems, over the stolen-election claims.