Friends and neighbors,

It was an extremely productive week at the Capitol with key legislation being passed by the Minnesota Senate, including significant State Government and Education bills.

Ensuring election transparency and increasing participation:

As chair of the Senate State Government Finance and Policy and Elections Committee, a topic I have always dedicated myself to is working hard to keep our elections safe and secure. And the State Government bill, which recently passed the Senate, achieves just that. It also provides important provisions to protect taxpayer dollars and increase participation opportunities in the election process.

This legislation contains two major bills, SF 2956 and SF 3469, I authored to promote election security and transparency. Highlights include requiring a specific security marking to identify genuine absentee ballot paper, adding security and transparency measures to drop boxes, and assuring that a ballot is only placed in a drop box by the voter themselves. Minnesota law already allows for a voter to turn in up to three ballots at an in-person early absentee voting location.

Additionally, these provisions provide the Secretary of State’s Office one-time funding of $6 million for local election grants to help hire temporary staff to enter voter registration applications into the Statewide Voter Registration System to comply with current federal law. Further, the Minnesota IT Services receives $4 million in Fiscal Year 2023, and $1 million each Fiscal Year thereafter, to publicly provide and maintain election livestream recordings and requirements for absentee ballot boards. 

Another important feature of the State Government bill is a policy provision I introduced to block special interests from buying access to state government. This addresses a current issue where many contracted lawyers in the Attorney General’s office have ties to other politically affiliated groups and may be using their influence to push an outside agenda using a public office. This provision, therefore, requires all legal services of the Attorney General’s office to be performed only by government funding of employees.

The State Government package also contains several bills I authored relating to absentee voting. First is a bill requiring any absentee voting location to be open for the entire 46 days. It also includes a bill requiring any mailing sent by or on behalf of a committee or any other private organization, such as a sample ballot or absentee ballot application, to make multiple statements of transparency. This will make it clear to the recipient that the mailing is not an official absentee ballot or absentee ballot request. Finally, a technical statute change is made relating to the delivery of absentee ballot envelopes such as language referencing the signature envelope and the secrecy envelopes for ballots.

Transparency has always been a fundamental value of our elections and allows for greater assurance in the process and the outcome. To further maintain confidence in our state’s elections, the State Government package contains critical legislation to keep the conduct of our elections fair, transparent, and free of outside influence.

Addressing Minnesota’s declining reading scores:

The Minnesota Senate also recently approved an Education bill to reverse Minnesota’s chronically foundering literacy scores. 

The Senate’s unyielding focus on improving literacy comes on the heels of historic education bills that have fully funded K-12 schools, including $18.6 billion in total education funding in 2017, 2% annual student formula increases in 2019, and $1.1 billion in funding increases in 2021 – including the largest formula growth in 15 years.

Minnesota’s third-grade reading proficiency has alarmingly been flat or declined every year since 2013, and currently, only about one-half of students are reading at grade level. To address this, the legislation instructs school boards to develop a public, accountable plan that will achieve 90% reading proficiency by third grade. 

The Education bill also delivers funding to provide all Minnesota teachers with indispensable training in the science of reading instruction — Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS). Additional highlights include removing the burdensome, unsuccessful ‘World’s Best Workforce’ mandate, and refocusing Regional Centers of Excellence to prioritize literacy. 

Literacy is a vital skill all children must learn. If a student cannot read, they cannot fully succeed in future subjects such as English, science or math. However, 40% of Minnesota students cannot read at grade level. The Education bill, therefore, focuses on the most important support we can provide our students — improving literacy.

Contact me

As always, if have questions or concerns on any legislative topic, feel free to contact me any time. You can call me at 651-296-5655 or send me an email at sen.mary.kiffmeyer@senate.mn. It is a privilege to serve as your state senator.

Sincerely,

Mary