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Paying for the recount, lawsuit

Published (3/4/2011)
By Nick Busse
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Members of a House committee held over a bill Feb. 28 that would resolve some unpaid bills from a pair of election controversies.

Sponsored by Rep. Morrie Lanning (R-Moorhead), HF577 would appropriate $470,375 to the Office of the Secretary of State to pay for costs from the 2010 recounts and legal fees from a lawsuit over restrictions on exit polling.

The House State Government Finance Committee held the bill over for possible omnibus inclusion. There is no Senate companion.

A majority of the funds, $322,000, would be used to compensate counties involved in the 2010 recounts, including the gubernatorial recount. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said his office relied on county auditors and their staff during the recount because it was less expensive for the state.

“We need to make sure that our partners at the county level are not harmed,” Ritchie said.

The remainder, $148,375, would go to pay legal fees for a 2008 U.S. District Court case brought against the state by several major news media companies. ABC, CNN, Fox News and others charged that a state law restricting exit polling near voting locations was unconstitutional.

In the lawsuit, the news organizations argued the First Amendment guaranteed their right to do exit polling at the door, rather than the 100-foot limit established by the Legislature. The court agreed and ordered the state to pay the plaintiffs’ legal fees. The Legislature subsequently changed the law.

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