A Letter to the Editor of the Morrison County Record is Denied Publication while Paper Omits Key Details in its Own Writeup

When a resident of Morrison County wrote a letter to the editor of the Morrison County Record, it was incorrectly fact-checked as a tactic to deny the publication of key details of two discretionary recounts of the November 8, 2022 election, one for County Commissioner District 5 candidate Rene’ Krousey and the other for County Commissioner District 3 Jeremy Pekula.

As such, readers of that newspaper’s article were prevented from learning the truth about candidates’ intentions in paying for the recounts and the discovered limitations to transparency in the current process. I was present for and participated in Jeremy Pekula’s recount and so can attest to the truthfulness of Jessy Hughes’s conclusions below.

Here is the letter to the editor that Jessy Hughes sent to Terry Lehrke at the Morrison County Record on November 30, 2022:

To the Editor:

I am extremely disappointed that the writer of last week's article regarding the two County Commissioner Discretionary Recounts did not take the time to contact the candidates involved for comment.

Most people would be surprised to learn the truth that the candidates didn't request the Discretionary Recounts because they believed they had won their respective elections.

The true reason the candidates requested recounts was to witness firsthand how the process works and what potential loopholes, if any, the recount process contains.

Only one item on the ballot is allowed to be challenged during a Discretionary Recount, which is the oval filled in for the candidate or their opponent.

By law, all ballots are supposed to be initialed by two election judges. There were several ballots that only had one judge's initials, but despite the law being broken, they were not allowed to challenge those ballots.

The bottom line is this: there exists no process by which We The People are able to challenge nor verify the legal legitimacy of any ballot, therefore our elections are no longer transparent.

Jessy Hughes

“The bottom line is this: there exists no process by which We The People are able to challenge nor verify the legal legitimacy of any ballot, therefore our elections are no longer transparent.”

—Jessy Hughes