Mike Lindell, the founder of MyPillow, announced Monday that he intends to file a temporary restraining order against Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon. The legal action follows Lindell missing an August 24 deadline to pay for a private recount of the state’s gubernatorial primaries.
The dispute stems from the August 11 primary, where Lindell lost the Republican nomination for governor to state House Speaker Lisa Demuth by approximately 11 percentage points. While Lindell refused to concede and alleged vote irregularities, the Secretary of State's office reported that it did not receive the required payment or a discretionary recount request by the established deadline.
Lindell’s campaign stated that the Secretary of State’s office placed "untenable" restrictions on the audit by limiting it only to the top two Republican candidates. Lindell is seeking to include Democratic ballots and all primary candidates in the recount, claiming that identified anomalies would apply to the entire field. As proof of "wire transfer readiness," his campaign shared an authorization form for an $825,000 transaction dated Monday morning.
The scale of the requested recount involves at least $825,000 in private funding, a cost Lindell’s campaign indicated it was prepared to transfer. However, Lindell’s financial capacity is currently a subject of legal record elsewhere; his attorneys recently stated in a separate defamation lawsuit that he cannot afford to pay $56,369 in sanctions owed to Smartmatic, an electronic voting system company. A court ruling in Minnesota would set a precedent for whether private individuals can dictate the scope of discretionary recounts beyond the top two candidates mandated by current state administrative rules.
What happens next depends on the court's response to Lindell's request for a temporary restraining order and his bid to waive the August 24 payment deadline. Cassondra Knudson, a spokesperson for Secretary Simon, stated that the office’s recount plan was approved by the State Canvassing Board on August 18 and follows existing state law. If the court denies the motion, the primary results will remain as reported. No specific hearing date for the restraining order was provided in the report.