Saying he chose the convenience of election workers over voters, Senator Mary Kiffmeyer (R-Big Lake) questioned Gov. Mark Dayton’s decision to call two special elections on Monday February 12, 2018. Holding elections on any day besides Tuesday is extremely rare in Minnesota but the governor recently called for two legislative special elections to occur on the second Monday in February.

Dayton’s office claims the Monday election is necessary because a school district that overlaps House District 23B is already having an election on Tuesday February 13th. Those ballots have to be prepared weeks before ballots could be available for a legislative race due to a possible primary election.

Sen. Kiffmeyer is a former secretary of state and serves as the chair of the Senate State Government Finance and Elections Committee. She recently supported legislation to limit special elections to five dates each year. February 13, 2018 is one of those dates.

“Gov. Dayton is choosing the convenience of election workers over the convenience of voters,” said Kiffmeyer. “He had several other options for these elections and instead chose to have some Minnesota voters vote on two consecutive days in February. It is completely counter to the spirit of the law we just passed, and will ultimately confuse our voters and depress voter turnout.”

Kiffmeyer noted that Gov. Dayton could have called for the special elections to occur on Tuesday, January 30, 2018. He could also have allowed voters in the Senate District 54 special election to vote on Tuesday February 13th since there are no other conflicting elections in this district.

“Gov. Dayton is asking the voters in Hastings and Cottage Grove to vote on a Monday because one precinct in a small school district overlaps with a special election in Southern Minnesota. It doesn’t make any sense and it needlessly disenfranchises voters.”