Supreme Court removes Ek from ballot

12/19/2005

By Dave Aeikens
St. Cloud Times

The Minnesota Supreme Court has ordered Sue Ek’s name removed from the Dec. 27 special election ballot. Ek was the Republican candidate for an open House seat in District 15B.

The decision came after a 75-minute hearing this morning. She was running against Stearns County Commissioner Larry Haws, the DFL endorsed candidate. On Friday, a lower-court judge ruled that Ek did not meet the residency requirement to run for the Legislature in St. Cloud. The Supreme Court agreed with the findings. State law requires a candidate to live within a district for six months. Ek signed an affidavit July 9 saying she lived in St. Paul.

The court’s order does not say whether Ek can be replaced on ballot. The special election is to replace Joe Opatz of St. Cloud, who resigned to serve as interim president of Central Lakes College in Brainerd.

Another race on the ballot for an open senate seat is unaffected. DFLer Tarryl Clark, Republican Dan Ochsner and Dan Becker of the Independence Party are running to replace Dave Kleis, who became mayor in November.