Donald Trump’s name almost didn’t make it on the ballot in Minnesota thanks to a snafu by the state GOP.

The secretary of state’s office requires each major political party to submit, by August 29 (this coming Monday), the names of its nominees for president and vice president as well as the names of ten presidential electors and ten alternate presidential electors.


Not only had the Minnesota Republican party not filed the paperwork as of last night, according to Michael Brodkorb, a public-relations executive in the state who was chronicling the chaos last night on Twitter, and to whom I’ve reached out for comment, but they failed to elect alternate presidential electors at their state convention in March. (Brodkorb seems to be the only one right now who has the story: the local press reported last night that Trump wasn’t on the ballot, but couldn’t explain why.)

“Total confusion among #MNGOP officials on process for Trump being on MN ballot — absolutely possible they could’ve missed deadline,” Brodkorb wrote on Twitter Wednesday evening. A spokesman for the Minnesota Republican party did not respond to an immediate request for comment.

It’s somewhat astonishing that the Trump campaign was not aware that the candidate’s name was not yet on the ballot, and Brodkorb notes that a Trump aide reached out to the Minnesota GOP in the midst of all this and said, essentially, “Fix it!”



The party proceeded to name alternate electors in contravention of their own party constitution, which requires that electors be nominated at a state convention. “The cleanest way for #MNGOP to solve mess it to call state convention to elect alternate national delegates — but they can’t, no time,” Brodkorb wrote.

The party, having violated its own constitution to fix the problem, has now submitted its paperwork to get Trump’s name on the ballot under the wire – and the Minnesota secretary of state tells ABC News that he is now, in fact, on the ballot.

Close call.

EDITOR’s NOTE: This piece has been updated since its original posting.