The Lindell Minnesota recount that was supposed to begin this week is not happening, at least not yet. The money never showed up, and the man who promised it has gone to court instead.

MyPillow founder Mike Lindell has sued Minnesota’s secretary of state and election officials, arguing they altered the terms of the recount he had agreed to finance after losing the Republican gubernatorial primary.

What He Promised, and What He Did

Lindell finished a distant second to state House Speaker Lisa Demuth in the 11 August primary, trailing by roughly 45,000 votes despite carrying an endorsement from President Trump.

Last week he announced he would pay $825,000 on Monday to fund a complete hand recount and audit of the contest.

Monday came. The payment did not.

Why He Backed Out

Speaking to NBC News by phone on Tuesday, Lindell said he withheld the money after learning the recount would examine only the ballots cast for himself or Demuth, rather than every ballot across the seven-candidate Republican field.

He framed this as a fundamental change to what he had bargained for, saying he had paid to have all votes counted rather than just two candidates’ totals. He described the arrangement as a bait-and-switch and called it disgusting.

He also indicated he would pursue the matter in court regardless of cost, saying he would accept a price three times higher to obtain what he considers a genuine recount.

The State’s Position

The secretary of state’s office responded that it supplied the contingent recount plan to Lindell after the State Canvassing Board approved it on 18 August.

According to the office, the plan conforms to state law and administrative rules governing recount procedures and matches the approach used in previous recounts.

That last point carries weight. If the parameters mirror what Minnesota has done before, the argument that Lindell was singled out becomes considerably harder to sustain.

Secretary of State Steve Simon, a Democrat, chairs the canvassing board.

What the Lawsuits Actually Seek

The filings target both the secretary of state’s office and the State Canvassing Board.

They challenge the recount process the state has laid out and ask that no recount proceed under those parameters.

That is a notable request. Lindell is not merely asking for broader terms. He is asking a court to prevent the recount from occurring at all under the rules currently on the books, presumably as leverage toward obtaining the version he wants.

The Underlying Claims

Lindell has spent years advancing debunked assertions that voting machines rigged the 2020 presidential election.

Last week he said his team had identified several irregularities in Minnesota’s election data, attributing them to the use of electronic voting machines.

No evidence supporting those claims has been publicly substantiated, and the margin in question, approximately 45,000 votes, sits far outside the range where recounts typically alter outcomes. Recounts generally shift totals by dozens or low hundreds of votes, not tens of thousands.

A Familiar Pattern of Nonpayment

The refusal to hand over the recount money fits alongside other financial disputes.

In one defamation case, Lindell now owes more in court fees than in sanctions after declining to pay Smartmatic USA Corp., a voting machine company. He said last week that he still has no intention of paying what the court has determined he owes.

He was separately found in June 2025 to have defamed a former employee of Dominion Voting Systems.

Voting machine companies have pursued multiple actions against him stemming from his 2020 fraud claims, and those cases have produced judgments he has resisted satisfying.

The pattern is difficult to ignore: a public commitment to pay, followed by a refusal, followed by litigation.

Where the Race Stands

None of this changes the ballot. Demuth is set to face Democratic nominee Amy Klobuchar in the general election.

The recount dispute concerns a primary that was decided by a wide margin and whose result no serious observer expects to change.

What it does affect is time and attention. Minnesota election officials now find themselves defending standard procedures in court during the run-up to a general election, which is a cost that does not appear on any invoice.