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Election updates pass House — but differences with Senate remain

The House on Friday OK’d a package of elections policy updates that would tweak state laws governing absentee balloting, recounts, voter registration and election administration.

An amended version of HF840/SF455* will now head back to the Senate after the House passed a version of the bill that substituted the Senate’s language for its own, 126-0. The Senate passed its bill 39-28 May 11.

The bill is a set of technical election reforms that its House sponsor, Rep. Tim Sanders (R-Blaine), said has support from both sides of the aisle. Sen. Katie Sieben (DFL-Newport) is the Senate sponsor.

“This is a very bipartisan bill,” Sanders said.

The bill proposes a number of small updates to how Minnesota administers its electoral contests, from authorizing statutory cities to adopt their own candidate filing fees for elections to city offices through municipal ordinances, to allowing absentee voters to return their own ballot, in person, on Election Day.

Some key provisions in the bill would:

  • remove a section of law that requires county attorneys to automatically proceed with prosecutions of alleged voter fraud if a complaint or evidence is brought forward, instead allowing them to proceed with investigations and prosecutions according to normal standards of law;
  • include Minnesota National Guard members under special voting procedures for members of the military and other citizens residing overseas;
  • allow the children of residents living permanently overseas to vote in Minnesota elections if a parent resided in the state prior to leaving the country;
  • conform technical aspects of existing election law to general state statute requiring Minnesota’s presidential electors to the Electoral College to cast their vote for president and vice-president for the candidates to whom they are pledged;
  • update language relating to voting booths and ballot marking procedure; and
  • provide a more specific deadline for candidates to make a written request for a publicly-funded recount in a federal or state election. Current law requires a request be made within 48 hours of the election results being canvassed; that would be changed to a deadline of 5 p.m. on the second day after the canvass.

“Election stuff needs to have bipartisan support to move forward,” said Rep. Mike Nelson (DFL-Brooklyn Park). “These are the things we were able to agree upon” in committee.

Other measures included in the bill would:

  • change policy governing vacancies in contests for partisan office by not opening a new filing period if a candidate withdraws during the 48-hour withdrawal period after filing for office;
  • permit high school students to serve as trainee election judges in any county adjacent to their home county, not just the county in which they live; and
  • clarify that the existing right of voters to take time off from work to cast a ballot extends to all regularly-scheduled elections, including local contests.

 

 


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