The Minnesota Senate adopted the Elections Conference Committee Report early on Thursday morning. Senator Mark Koran (R-North Branch) released the following statement on the final bill: 

“This highly partisan election bill takes Minnesota backward and reduces transparency and public input in our election process. We have a long tradition of only approving changes to election law if there’s bipartisan agreement, yet this bill has no bipartisan support. It didn’t deserve bipartisan support because it includes potentially unconstitutional changes infringing on free speech and opens a back door for ranked choice voting implementation across the state.”  

A few of the most substantial changes to the bill since it left the Senate include: 

• • Circumventing debate and scrutiny by adding the elections finance provisions to the bill in the conference committee without first passing it off the Senate Floor. 
  • Removing a Republican amendment requiring absentee ballot applications that originate from outside groups disclose that the application is not from the government. 
  • Stripping out an amendment that exempts subject matter experts from having to register as a lobbyist when sharing information with legislators. Advocates are concerned that this will discourage free speech, forcing business owners and other members of the public to register as a lobbyist before being able to speak with legislators. 
  • Including a House provision to add ranked choice voting as a possible remedy for a violation of the Voting Rights Act. 
  • Allocating money for pop-up polling places on college campuses, which would allow a political rally in one building and a pop-up polling place right next door.  

 

The conference committee report was passed on a party-line vote of 34-33.