The responsibility of investigating alleged voter fraud could be taken off the laps of Minnesota’s 87 county attorneys.
HF275, sponsored by Rep. Tim O'Driscoll (R-Sartell), would remove a section of state election law compelling county attorneys to proceed with prosecutions in cases of alleged voter fraud if a complaint or evidence is brought forward.
The bill was laid over Tuesday by the House Government Operations and Elections Policy Committee for possible omnibus bill inclusion. It has no Senate companion.
The bill proposes that voter fraud prosecutions proceed like other cases brought before the state’s county attorneys, leaving the responsibility of investigations to law enforcement officials.
“Part of what this bill does, in my opinion, is puts the purity back in state law,” O’Driscoll said.
Similar language was stripped from an omnibus elections policy bill during conference committee negotiations with the Senate in 2013.
O’Driscoll cited a pair of cases of elderly voters suffering from dementia as the impetus for the legislation. In those cases, the voter had voted absentee, then attempted to cast a ballot on Election Day. Because of current state law, county prosecutors were forced to move forward before the cases were thrown out by a judge.
“It seems like a common sense bill,” said Rep. Yvonne Selcer (DFL-Minnetonka).