Minnesota Supreme Court sides with Republican Party in Hennepin County Absentee Ballot Board ruling
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled in favor of state Republicans, who in a petition accused Hennepin County officials of violating election laws. The filing accused the county of appointing Republican election judges to its absentee ballot board who were not included in an official party list.
The petition from the Republican Party of Minnesota stated elections officials "had a statutory duty to recruit election judges for the absentee ballot board by first contacting Republican election judges residing in Hennepin County that were identified by the Republican Party on its party list."
In responding to the petition, county elections officials said "the lists of election judge candidates from the major political parties ... were exhausted by the cities within Hennepin County, including Minneapolis, which thus authorized respondents to appoint others not on the Republican Party List to the Hennepin County Absentee Ballot Board," the ruling states. Minnesota's secretary of state also filed a response, saying county officials did not violate election law.
In a ruling issued Tuesday, the Supreme Court said the county failed to comply with its statutory duty because it "appointed election judges to the Hennepin County Absentee Ballot Board from outside the Party Lists without first contacting Hennepin County residents on the lists." The court said the county must pick judges for absentee ballots from the Republican Party's list by Friday.
Wednesday morning, Hennepin County Elections Director Ginny Gelms said though she believed the county was in compliance with election law, it will comply with the court order.
"We had believed that we were doing what we were supposed to do according to the law," Gelms said. "But I respect the Supreme Court and we're going to do what they told us to do."
Gelms said county officials believed they were exhausting the party-provided lists by working with individual cities to assign election judges. The court, however, ruled the county must reach out to the entire list independently in order to comply with the law. Gelms said officials reached out to the entire list by email Wednesday morning.
Gelms also said the election judges who serve on the Absentee Ballot Board primarily are tasked with verifying signatures when there is a dispute between absentee ballot applications and the ballots themselves.
"It's such a small number of ballots that the number of election judges that we need serving on the Absentee Ballot Board for Hennepin County is pretty small," she said.
The board was and is in compliance with party balance laws, Gelms said, which was affirmed in the court's ruling. Signature verification needs to be completed by two judges of different political parties, according to state law. Both Gelms and the court said that is the case.
The Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State later sent a full statement to WCCO:
The Minnesota Supreme Court has provided clarity on a technical and previously ambiguous statute that pertains to how a limited number of election judges are hired to serve on absentee ballot boards. This ruling only applies to the appointment of election judges who perform signature verification in cases where identification numbers do not match during absentee ballot processing.
The court noted that Hennepin County did have election judges from both major political parties on its absentee ballot board. Additionally, the court's decision will not impact absentee ballots that have already been processed and will not delay the ongoing absentee ballot verification processes.
As of Wednesday, Hennepin County has received more than 263,000 absentee ballots. The board has accepted more than 209,000 of those.