David Hann, the Chairman of the Republican Party of Minnesota, released a statement on Facebook, informing Republicans that due to the issues from both Otter Tail County Caucus locations, no new delegates are considered elected, and the people chosen to be delegates in 2022 will remain so per state law.
At the Fergus Falls meeting, there were two different registration forms brought and distributed by some attendees.
These participants encouraged other attendees to fill out the unofficial form, claiming it was the correct one.
No Precinct Caucus Registration sheets (PCRC), official or otherwise, were submitted from the Fergus Falls meeting on the night of the caucus, instead brought by someone from the Perham meeting a few days later, and only carrying sheets from some of the precincts.
On top of that, the sheets that were brought in were signed by people other than the elected caucus secretary and had times that conflicted with the times the secretary recorded, with some making no logical sense at all.
At the Perham meeting, attendees decided to vote out one of the conveners and replaced them with Tami Barry.
All of the PCRC forms from that meeting were filled out identically, showing all precinct activities occurring at the same time.
Hann says, “It defies reason to believe this is what actually occurred.”
These forms were also signed by the same convener and secretary instead of by the precinct conveners and secretaries.
Hann adds, “The Perham Caucus location convener Tami Barry was on the phone with our Executive Director on caucus night at the exact time (7:56) that the forms say nominations closed. The timestamp on these forms raises questions about how the nominations could be closed while the convener was engaged in a lengthy phone conversation with the Party Executive Director. It also creates the appearance that these times were added after the fact in order to claim the requirements of the law were met when in fact they were not.”
In addition, not all attendees, including Tami Barry herself, signed a registration form certifying that they were eligible caucus attendees.
The registration forms are meant to be a paper trail to prove that the lists are not padded on caucus night, like what many from Otter Tail County alleged happened in the 2022 caucus.
Some attendees from the Perham location state that it was so noisy and chaotic that they never heard nominations opened or closed.
At both locations, multiple people entered absentee forms so they could be considered to be elected as delegates, but some of those people never had their names entered for nomination.
In response to the whole situation, Hann states, “I am incredibly disappointed that Republicans could not come together in OTC and do what our 119 other BPOUs did – conduct their business respectfully, come to a consensus about the night’s activities, and fill out the appropriate paperwork.”
He also states, “We have concluded that no legitimate elections occurred on caucus night. Per Article V, Section 5 of our state constitution, the delegates elected in 2022 will continue to be delegates as no new delegates were elected.”
In short, the chaotic decisions made by some attendees of the Otter Tail County caucus have led to a failure to follow state and party rules regarding how a caucus should be held and made any legitimate voting that occurred null and void.