What: Minnesota Supreme Court Case (Case number: A20-1294), Minnesota Voters Alliance (MVA) v. Ramsey & Olmstead Counties, on January 4, 2022
Description:
The following is taken from an email sent from the Executive Director Andy Cilek who is from the non-partisan Voters Watchdog group the Minnesota Voters Alliance (MVA).
In a closely watched election lawsuit that could dramatically change how cities and counties conduct future statewide elections, oral arguments have been scheduled before the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Minnesota Voters Alliance (MVA) v. Ramsey & Olmsted Counties (Case number: A20-1294) will be heard on January 4, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. at the State Capitol Building, 2nd Floor.
While this case involves just two counties, there are hundreds of governing bodies (cities, counties, school districts) across Minnesota ignoring the requirements in state election law to maintain ‘party balance’ on their ballot boards.
Many are shutting out Republican election judges from accepting and rejecting absentee ballots by exclusively appointing partisan government unionized employees to this critical role when the statutes clearly require election judges from both parties.
This case focuses on the duty to establish a ballot board, the duty to appoint a sufficient number of election judges to a ballot board to accept and reject ballots, the duty to exhaust election judge lists submitted by the political parties, and the duty to maintain party balance on ballot boards.
MVA asserts these counties have breached all of these clearly mandated duties resulting in the elimination of bi-partisan oversight of elections in Minnesota.
The Republican Party of Minnesota is a co-plaintiff along with State Representative Duane Quam and several election judges. The MVA is represented in the case by Gregory J. Joseph of Joseph Law Office PLLC and Erick Kaardal of Mohrman, Kaardal & Erickson P.A.
Please take a few moments to read our final reply brief submitted to the Supreme Court! Click here: MVA Reply Brief filed December 6, 2021.
Video of Oral Arguments (via AlphaNews MN YouTube Video Channel)
I, Publius Jr, am an Election Judge in Ramsey County in the city of St Paul MN. I served on the Ramsey County Elections Absentee Ballot Board from September 27th to November 4th 2020, and also for the Municipal Elections in 2021 for the same period late September to the day before the Election in November.
The Problem exists is that if Counties can interpret the law as not being requiring to have an equal balance of Election Judges from Major Parties then they can hire a bunch of people who don’t have to declare their party affiliation. In the 2 largest counties of the state Ramsey & Hennepin Counties have a high number of Democrats in government whether elected or appointed. How is it that any Absentee Ballot Board can be fairly run in them?
In September 2020, the hearing by Judge Thomas Gilligan (yeah that’s his name), allowed Hennepin County to go ahead and hire a bunch of Deputy County Auditors. Ramsey County went ahead and put together an Absentee Ballot Board of Equal Balance of Major Party Election Judges. In fact Ramsey County had more DFL Election Judges than Republicans, and very few independent Election Judges. Ramsey County did hire a bunch of Deputy County Auditors to process requests for absentee ballots from non-registered citizens wishing to vote, these Absentee Ballots were classified as “Non-Registered Ballots.” The Absentee Ballot would be sent to the citizen and they could vote then return the ballot with paperwork that showed they were who they said they were plus where they were living–often they had a witness signature to vouch for them, which is a paradox as this was the reason why Registered Absentee Voters were allowed to return a ballot without a witness signature because of ad hoc Covid rules decreed by the Secretary of State Steve Simon and not the Legislature. There was no oversight by an equal balance of Election Judges from the Major Parties to process those Non-Registered Absentee Ballots. That might be a lawsuit for another day.
The videos below were sent to this website after the November 3rd 2020 Election. The videos were provided by a Poll Observer at Hennepin County Elections.
See the worker putting ballots into their bag.
The ballots are being taken by a worker. One worker out of sight of the camera talks about how they work at the VA Hospital. They are a Federal Worker and it’s their duty to report what happened here. There is no reason why an Election worker should be able to walk away with ballots in their personal possession.
We are posting this as a courtesy to the Minnesota Voters Alliance. We do not get compensated in any way from the donations to MVA, nor from the Republican Party of Minnesota. The videos and commentary are from the website and not associated with the MVA. ~~ Publius Jr.