Election offices in over half of Minnesota’s 87 counties have received bomb threats since Friday, Secretary of State Steve Simon said Tuesday.

Simon’s office said it has received reports from state, county and federal officials saying that threats were sent via email over the past few days. The office did not report which counties have been affected.

The threats come as election officials begin to meet for canvassing, recounts and post-election reviews — all routine processes to make the Nov. 5 election results official.

“Threats of violence against election workers, aimed at disrupting our democracy, are absolutely unacceptable,” Simon said in a statement. “Although Election Day is over, election officials across the state are continuing their work to verify that the election was free, fair, accurate, and secure. Over the next few weeks, counties will be canvassing the election, certifying election results, and conducting post-election reviews. “

The affected counties are responding to the threats in accordance with local policies and procedures, Simon’s office said.

“Our office is coordinating with local, state, and federal partners to respond and ensure that our election officials can complete this important work and that those responsible for these threats are held accountable,” he said.

— Forum News Service

Rice Street rebuild

near Capitol considered

Ramsey County and the city of St. Paul are working to design and construct a potential new alignment for Rice Street near the state Capitol building, from John Ireland Boulevard to Pennsylvania Avenue. An open house on the effort will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. next Tuesday, Nov. 19 at Springboard for the Arts, 262 University Ave. W. A light meal will be provided.

The city and county are working in partnership with the Capitol Area Architectural and Planning Board, as well as Metro Transit’s Metro G Line bus rapid transit project. The goal is to improve pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular safety, while also prioritizing public transit and designing the road for existing and changing land uses, including better public amenities.

The half-mile project will build off improvements that have unfolded along Rice Street between Pennsylvania Avenue and Wheelock Parkway throughout the past five years. Design options for the new phase will be considered through 2025, in advance of concept selection and refinement in 2026. Construction could begin in the spring of 2027.

For more information, visit the Ramsey County project page at tinyurl.com/RiceSTP2025.

— Frederick Melo

Fridley man sentenced for shooting girl, 11

A Fridley man was given more than eight years in federal prison Tuesday for firing shots from an AR-style rifle just after midnight on New Year’s Day in Minneapolis, one of which struck an 11-year-old girl in the face as she looked out her bedroom window.

James William Turner Jr., 45, was sentenced to 100 months after pleading guilty May 23 to possession of ammunition as a felon in connection with the shooting of La’neria Wilson near Bryant and 23rd avenues on the city’s North Side.

Wilson underwent surgery to remove bullet fragments from her face on Jan. 3, two days before she turned 12, according to court documents.

The girl was stable and responsive and was able to tell officers that she was sitting in her second-story bedroom when she heard gunshots outside around midnight. She went to her window to look when a round came through the window and hit her in the face.

Officers found eight live cartridges and 24 discharged cartridge casings throughout the boulevard, sidewalk and yard.

A Snapchat video taken before the shooting showed Turner near the girl’s home and arguing with an unknown person before the camera turned to show an AR-style rifle lying across the driver’s seat of a vehicle. Doorbell surveillance footage showed Turner fire multiple rounds in the direction of the girl’s bedroom window, court documents say.

— Nick Ferraro

Wrongful conviction found after 16 years

A man was released from prison after serving 16 years for a Minneapolis murder he did not commit, a local prosecutor announced on Tuesday.

Jurors in 2009 found Edgar Barrientos-Quintana guilty of killing 18-year-old Jesse Mickelson in a drive-by shooting. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. But after a three-year investigation, Attorney General Keith Ellison’s Conviction Review Unit in August released a damning report of Minneapolis police’s original investigation that also cited evidence supporting Barrientos-Quintana’s alibi.

A judge approved Barrientos-Quintana’s release last week.

“Nothing can give Mr. Barrientos-Quintana back those 16 years, and for that, we are so sorry,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said in a statement on Tuesday. “Our hearts are also with the family of Jesse Mickelson over their irreparable loss. When the criminal legal system does not function ethically, it causes significant harm.”

In a Wednesday ruling vacating Barrientos-Quintana’s convictions and ordering his release, Hennepin County District Judge John McBride found that Barrientos-Quintana did not receive a fair trial.

Barrientos-Quintana’s attorney failed to effectively represent him and prosecutors didn’t disclose favorable evidence, Moriarty said. Investigators also used coercive lineup tactics and interrogation tactics, resulting in unreliable eyewitness identifications, she added.

Security footage captured Barrientos-Quintana at a grocery story shortly before the shooting, and the attor

ney general’s office pointed to phone records not presented at trial that placed him at his girlfriend’s suburban apartment shortly after the shooting. The Conviction Review Unit determined that he could not have traveled to and from the crime scene in that time.

The reviewers also cast blame on police, who showed an old photo of Barrientos-Quintana with a shaved head to eyewitnesses who had described the suspect as being bald. Security footage showed Barrientos-Quintana had short, dark hair at the time of the shooting.

Barrientos-Quintana last month asked McBride to vacate his conviction based on Ellison’s report. In September, Moriarty revealed that Mickelson’s sisters believed Barrientos-Quintana to be innocent and supported his release.

— Associated Press

Hovde mulling recount, hints at election denial

Wisconsin Republican Eric Hovde admitted Tuesday that he lost the U.S. Senate race to Democratic incumbent Tammy Baldwin, but refused to concede and instead repeated misleading claims about the election while he considers a recount.

Hovde preleased a video saying he wanted to gather more information and assess whether to seek a recount. But in a later interview on 1130-AM radio, Hovde admitted he lost while still stopping short of conceding.

“I will definitely pick myself up and move on and fight for our wonderful country and state, which is why I got into this whole thing,” Hovde said. “It’s the most painful loss I’ve ever experienced.”

Hovde can request a recount because his margin of defeat was less than 1 percentage point, at about 29,000 votes. But he hasn’t said yet whether he will request one, explaining in a video directed at his supporters that he wants to review all of the information and options that are available.

“This is a difficult decision because I want to honor your support and, at the same time, bring closure to this election for our state,” Hovde said in the video posted on the social media platform X.

Hovde pointed to what he

claimed were irregularities with the vote results. There is no evidence of any wrongdoing in the election, the results of which are still being reviewed by counties before they submit the canvassed totals to the state by Nov. 19 for certification by Dec. 1.

Democrats, and even some Republicans, immediately called out Hovde for what they said was a perpetuation of lies about the integrity of the election.

“Stop trying to erode trust in our elections (and I say that as someone who supported Hovde),” said Jim Villa, a longtime Republican who previously worked in the Legislature and Milwaukee county executive’s office under Scott Walker before Walker became governor.

“That grift needs to stop!” Villa posted on X.

Baldwin campaign spokesperson Andrew Mamo accused Hovde of “sowing doubt about our very democracy.”

— Associated Press

Vos challenged but retains speakership

Wisconsin Republicans reelected Robin Vos as the speaker of the state Assembly on Tuesday, a position he has held longer than anyone in state history and that he reclaimed despite a challenge from a more conservative lawmaker and Democratic gains in the election.

The speaker is the most powerful position in the Assembly and Vos, who has held the post since 2013, will preside over the smallest Republican majority in 18 years. Vos was challenged by Rep. Scott Allen, who supported impeaching the state’s nonpartisan election leader. Vos opposed impeachment.

The vote on Vos was held in secret and he did not say at a news conference how the vote broke down. Allen did not attend the news conference.

Vos overcame opposition among some conservatives in his party and a stormy relationship with President-elect Donald Trump. Vos has frequently butted heads with Trump, most notably after his 2020 defeat when Vos refused to decertify President Joe Biden’s victory. Trump endorsed a Republican challenger to Vos in 2022 and Trump backers mounted unsuccessful recall attempts targeting Vos this year.

Vos got behind new legislative maps this year that were drawn by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, partly out of fear that the liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court could enact something even worse for Republicans. The Legislature approved the Evers map, which allowed Democrats to cut into Republican majorities in the Senate and Assembly but not enough to flip control.

Senate Republicans reelected Sen. Devin LeMahieu as their majority leader last week. Senate Democrats reelected Sen. Dianne Hesselbein as minority leader on Tuesday. Assembly Democrats are meeting Nov. 19 to elect their leaders.

— Associated Press