By Nathaniel "Beltway" Steele
Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder who has spent five years relitigating elections he lost in court and public opinion, is now refusing to pay for a recount he himself requested, according to CBS News and the Washington Examiner.
Lindell is withholding the roughly $825,000 payment required to trigger a recount and audit of the Republican primary for Minnesota governor. In a campaign statement cited by CBS News, he claims Minnesota's Secretary of State proposed an "unlawful recount process." The Washington Examiner reported Lindell's more specific complaint: that the office pulled a last-minute "bait and switch" by narrowing the recount to only the two top vote-getters rather than the broader field he expected.
Neither outlet's account includes a response from the Minnesota Secretary of State's office confirming or disputing Lindell's characterization of the scope change — a gap worth flagging, since "unlawful process" is a serious charge to make without the other side's account on the record.
Lindell has built a national profile, and a string of defamation lawsuits, on claims of stolen or mishandled elections since 2020. This dispute is smaller in scale — a single state primary — but it follows the same pattern: an allegation of official malfeasance, made publicly, ahead of any independent verification.
If Lindell does not pay, the recount he sought will not happen. What remains unclear from current reporting is whether Minnesota election law gives him a formal avenue to challenge the scope of a recount he requested, or whether refusing payment simply ends the matter. We'll follow the paperwork.
— Nathaniel "Beltway" Steele. Read the footnotes. The story's always in the footnotes.
— Compiled from reporting by CBS News and the Washington Examiner.
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