ST PAUL – On Thursday, the Minnesota Senate passed an Elections Policy Omnibus bill that adds costly burdens to local governments, reduces community representation in local elections, and fails to deliver integrity and transparency to Minnesota’s elections.

“Democrat, single-party control has violated Minnesota’s historical tradition of bipartisan election law changes,” Senator Mark Koran added. “Their hyper-partisan bill degrades public trust and accountability. We should be focused on solutions that increase citizen transparency, integrity, and participation.”

Among the more concerning changes in the bill is a change that allows school boards to fill vacancies with an appointment for as long as two years. This change prevents voters from choosing their elected school board representatives and significantly reduces public input in the electoral process.

The legislation also changes the voter registration process for homeless Minnesotans. If enacted, they can simply mark a place on a map where they generally reside and cast their vote for that precinct without any accountability or verification process. Currently, any voter who registers before election day must verify their physical address.

“Year after year, we are told Minnesota’s election system is hailed as the most efficient, transparent, and reliable in the country, yet this bill makes 102 changes to the very system they claim is the pinnacle of integrity,” Senator Mark Koran (R – North Branch) said. “It removes transparency, reduces election integrity, adds expensive mandates for local government, and moves us in the wrong direction for elections.”

Other concerning provisions of the Elections Policy bill include:

• Requiring any county or municipality that administers elections to transition to a ‘.gov’ website.
• Complex campaign finance changes that are hard to enforce, difficult to understand, and risk limiting public engagement in elections.

Senate Republicans offered several amendments to protect the integrity of election results and increase participation. Among them was the establishment of provisional ballots for voters who register on Election Day. Provisional ballots are used in 47 other states to ensure voters who register on Election Day are validated the same way as a voter who registers prior to the election, and before counting their vote in the final election results.

“Provisional ballots are a commonsense measure to improve election integrity and enhance voter confidence in Minnesota’s elections process,” Koran said. “Minnesota is an outlier in the nation with this simple, trusted process. For years, Democrats have prevented the use of provisional ballots, even as other states are adding them.”

Other amendments offered by Senate Republicans include:

• Prohibiting political parties from collecting or soliciting financial contributions during the legislative session to prevent special interests from buying influence.
• Preventing non-governmental groups from paying for election related expenses through so called, “Zuckerbucks” to keep elections free of outside influence.
• Banning political spending by organizations that receive state funding to ensure tax dollars are being spent responsibly and not used in a pay-to-play scheme.
• Requiring municipal and school board elections be held in general election years to increase voter participation.

The amendments were defeated along party lines.