House committee chair wants greater elections confidence through overhauled protocols

The 2024 election in Minnesota included missing ballots in an uber-tight legislative race, a winning candidate who didn’t live in the district and absentee ballots left unsecured in an open vehicle, although all were later accounted for.

Rep. Duane Quam (R-Byron) wants to instill greater confidence and improve the state’s election process.

“The idea is to try to get it more logical, straightforward and understandable for everybody involved so we don’t have the confusion,” said the chair of the House Elections Finance and Government Operations Committee.

Quam sponsors HF1800 that, as amended, would make wholesale modifications of laws across the election spectrum that would affect election judges, voter registration, polling place and ballot protocols.

The bill was approved Wednesday by the committee on a 6-5 party-line vote and sent to the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee.

Rep. Mike Freiberg (DFL-Golden Valley) said the bill has some good provisions, but his concerns outweigh those points. "There's just, in my mind, too much in here still that's troubling. Just a lot of concerns still there."

Election judges

The bill’s proposed changes to election judge procedures would require:

• a county auditor or city clerk to notify the secretary of state’s office if there are not a sufficient number of election judges affiliated with a political party to meet the party balance requirements. The secretary of state must then notify party representatives and request that the party provide further names; and
• an appointing authority to maintain a list of election judges with their major party affiliation or a statement that the judge does not affiliate with a party.

Nicole Freeman, government relations director with the secretary of state’s office, is worried that publicly revealing an election judge’s party affiliation could negatively impact their privacy and safety while also hurting election judge recruitment.

Quam responded that an election judge has already voluntarily identified with an affiliated party and wouldn’t be bothered to have that affiliation made public.

“I think you’d find few objections from those who volunteer at the booths,” said Rep. Joe McDonald (R-Delano). “They spend all day at their duties and they’re proud of the affiliation they come from.”

Residency

A special election for House District 40B is scheduled for March 11 after a district court judge ruled that the DFL candidate who handily won in November didn’t meet the residency requirement to serve.

The bill would require a candidate filing for office to “include a statement, signed under oath by at least two residents of the district who are not related to the candidate, attesting to their personal knowledge that the candidate resides at the address identified in the affidavit.”

Willfully making a false statement on a candidacy affidavit could result in 90 days in prison and/or a $10,000 fine.

A candidate found to have engaged in fraud or misrepresentation to force a special election would be required to pay for all costs for that special election.

Ballot retention, election results

By law, cities, counties and school districts must retain all election materials for at least 22 months after an election. The bill would include registration forms and absentee ballot envelopes to the requirement and make it a felony to destroy or dispose of filled ballots before the end of that retention period.

Entities that post unofficial election results on a public website must identify any precinct in which the vote totals are changed after the totals were first reported on the website, along with a notation indicating the number of impacted votes and the candidates for which those votes were cast; an explanation for the discrepancy; the date and time on which the discrepancy was discovered; the date and time on which the unofficial results were changed; and the initials of the elections official who made the change.