Last week the Minnesota Senate passed a hyper-partisan Elections Policy Omnibus bill that adds costly burdens to local governments, reduces community representation in local elections, and fails to deliver integrity and transparency to Minnesota’s elections.  

One concerning change in the bill now allows school boards to fill vacancies with an appointment for as long as two years, potentially preventing voters from choosing their elected school board representatives and significantly reduces public input in the electoral process.  

The legislation also changes the voter registration process for homeless Minnesotans by allowing them to mark a place on a map where they generally reside and cast their vote for that precinct without any accountability or verification process. Currently, any voter who registers before election day must verify their physical address.  

“Minnesota voters should have confidence in our election systems, and they should trust that transparency, accountability, and accessibility will be at the core of every elections bill, but this bill fails in all three areas,” said Senator Michael Kreun (R-Blaine). “As a legislature, we should be prioritizing election laws that expand participation while simultaneously upholding the integrity of our systems. Republicans attempted to address this by offering an amendment that establishes provisional ballots as a way to ensure every vote is properly counted, but the amendment was not accepted. Minnesotans deserve to know that there is a true bipartisan effort towards prioritizing safe, secure, and transparent elections – This bill fails to deliver on that.”

Senate Republicans offered several amendments to protect the integrity of election results and increase participation. Among them was the establishment of provisional ballots for voters who register on Election Day. Provisional ballots are already used in 47 other states as a means to ensure any voters who register on Election Day are validated in the same way as a voter who registers prior to the election, and before counting their vote in the final election results. 

A number of amendments were offered by Senate Republicans:

• Prohibiting political parties from collecting or soliciting financial contributions during the legislative session to prevent special interests from buying influence
• Preventing non-governmental groups from paying for election related expenses through so called “Zuckerbucks”
• Banning political spending by organizations that receive state funding to ensure tax dollars are being spent responsibly
• Requiring municipal and school board elections be held in general election years to increase voter participation

The amendments were defeated along party line votes.