The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

April 22, 2011

Counties awaiting Republican payments

By Brian Ojanpa The Free Press

— Some area counties continue to wait for money owed them by the Republican Party of Minnesota for document-copying costs following November’s gubernatorial election.

Martin County is still owed $350, Nicollet County is owed $1,300 and Sibley County is waiting on $1,623.

In Nicollet County’s case, repeated attempts have been made to collect the money, the most recent an invoice stating that the bill would be turned over to the county attorney’s office if payment wasn’t forthcoming.

Nicollet County Administrator Bob Podhradsky said Friday it would ultimately be the County Board’s decision on how to proceed if the bill remains unpaid.

The Republican Party requested copies of election-related documents from all 87 Minnesota counties following Democrat Mark Dayton’s narrow victory over Republican Tom Emmer on Nov. 2.

Republican Party Chairman Tony Sutton told The Free Press last week that the party is short on cash but is paying off counties as it gets money to do so. He said all will eventually be reimbursed.

At the party’s request Nicollet County copied 3,000 pages of documents, but not before a party attorney threatened the county with a lawsuit if the documents weren’t received by a set date.

County officials said the copying work required hundreds of hours of staff time.

Work on compiling the data was halted when Emmer conceded the election to Dayton five weeks after the polling.

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