A House/Senate Conference Committee just passed an election provisions bill. SF 1331 makes substantial and potentially dangerous changes to the way elections will be conducted in Minnesota.

 

The bill introduces early voting and no-excuse absentee voting, which would allow untold thousands of ballots to be cast without the traditional scrutiny of citizen election judges and poll challengers. It also removes requirements for party balance for certain election judge activities.

 

Amendments to the bill that would have improved the integrity of our elections were offered but defeated. There will be no ID requirements, improved transparency or better election data handling processes. Instead, the bill opens our already vulnerable election system to greater risk of errors and abuse while removing layers of citizen-oversight. Appointed bureaucrats will take the place of election judges on newly established “ballot boards.”

 

This elections provision omnibus bill was initially passed in the House exactly along party lines with 87 Democrats voting yes and 46 Republicans voting no. In the Senate, the bill passed by a vote of 40-27, with all Republican senators voting against. Five Democrats also broke ranks and voted no.

 

Now that the bill has emerged from conference committee, the final form needs to be adopted by a floor vote in both houses of the state legislature before being sent to the governor’s office.