Minnesota’s highest court unanimously sides with the Upper Midwest Law Center and the Minnesota Voters Alliance, holding that Hennepin County failed to exhaust the major Party Lists in appointing election judges to its Absentee Ballot Board
In a major victory for election integrity, the Minnesota Supreme Court has ordered Hennepin County to reconstitute its Absentee Ballot Board by exhausting the major Party Lists of election judges, no later than November 1. The Court’s order found that Hennepin County failed to do so, and so granted the petition filed by the Minnesota Voters Alliance (MVA) and three petitioners, represented by the Upper Midwest Law Center (UMLC), and jointly filed by the Republican Party of Minnesota, represented by the CrossCastle law firm.
The petitioners brought this action because public data—long withheld from the petitioners—showed that Hennepin County failed to include any Republican-affiliated election judges from its Party List on its absentee ballot board. In response, Hennepin County admitted that it claimed to “exhaust” the Party List by merely forwarding it to its constituent cities for their use for election day—as opposed to absentee ballot board—election judges. The Secretary of State also weighed in and went so far as to claim that Hennepin County did not even have to consult the Party List—despite unanimous Supreme Court precedent from 2022 to the contrary.
The Court held: “To exhaust the Party Lists for a county absentee ballot board, a county must first attempt to appoint all potential election judges on the Party Lists who reside within the county. But respondents appointed election judges to the Hennepin County Absentee Ballot Board from outside the Party Lists without first contacting Hennepin County residents on the lists. Because respondents here failed to comply with this statutory duty, we grant the petition in part and order appropriate relief to correct this error.”
The Court noted that Hennepin County could look to the example of Olmsted County from its 2022 Minnesota Voters Alliance decision, where Olmsted County appointed equal numbers of Republican and Democrat election judges to its Absentee Ballot Board.
“We at the Upper Midwest Law Center are grateful that the Minnesota Supreme Court granted our clients’ petition and ordered Hennepin County to follow Minnesota Election Law, which is designed to ensure accurate and secure elections and prevent fraud. All Minnesotans benefit from knowing that whichever party they affiliate with, counties and cities evaluating absentee ballots must have representation from their party in that process. All counties and cities across Minnesota should take notice: you must exhaust both parties’ election judge lists when constituting your ballot boards.” said UMLC Senior Counsel James Dickey.
View the order from the Minnesota Supreme Court.
