• Home
  • Independent Voter News
  • Quizzes
  • Election Dissection
  • Sections
  • Events
  • Directory
  • About Us
  • Glossary
  • Opinion
  • Campaign Finance
  • Redistricting
  • Civic Ed
  • Voting
  • Fact Check
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Voting>
  3. absentee voting>

Mail-in restrictions in Minnesota latest target of a Democratic lawsuit

Bill Theobald
May 14, 2020
Minnesota voting

Minnesota voters, like this one in Minneapolis earlier this year, face numerous obstacles to vote by mail. A lawsuit is challenging those barriers.

Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Another upper Midwest battleground, Minnesota, is the latest target in the barrage of litigation seeking to compel states to make voting by mail easier this year.

The new lawsuit, filed by Democrats in state court Wednesday, focuses on two aspects of Minnesota's election rules that have already been targeted as overly burdensome in several of the other suits: an Election Day deadline for the return of absentee ballots and the requirement that those envelopes have a witness signature.


Only one in eight ballots was cast by mail in Minnesota two years ago, about half the national average. But because of the coronavirus pandemic, a "mass influx of absentee voters will exacerbate existing disenfranchising laws" unless a court intervenes before the Aug. 11 primaries, said Marc Elias, the lawyer once again helming the lawsuit.

The suit says Minnesota's requirement that ballot envelopes be countersigned, by another registered voter or a notary, is punitive at a time when social distancing will likely remain highly recommended even though stay-at-home orders have been relaxed. And it says there should be a "reasonable" extension of the deadline for making sure absentee ballots are received by election offices — currently poll-closing time on election days — in a year when a surge in election mail volume and a strapped Postal Service could result in long delivery delays.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

President Trump plans to contest the state's 11 electoral votes aggressively this fall after coming within 45,000 votes, or 2 percentage points, four years ago. But the Democrat has carried the state every time since 1972, and the party also has a strong shot at picking up a pair of House seats.

The suit was filed by the National Redistricting Foundation, a Democrat-aligned group spearheaded by former Attorney general Eric Holder, on behalf of the Minnesota Alliance for Retired Americans Educational Fund and several voters.

It's part of a multimillion-dollar legal strategy announced by Democratic campaign officials in January. Elias says he has active cases in 16 states — including Wisconsin and Michigan in the upper Midwest — and several more will be filed in the coming weeks. The Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign announced last week they were doubling their legal cash commitment to $20 million in order to respond to the Democratic lawsuits.

From Your Site Articles
  • Second suit challenges limits on helping others vote in Minnesota ›
  • GOP to spend as much as Democrats on voting rights lawsuits - The ... ›
  • Democrats to spend more than $10M suing for voting rights - The ... ›
  • Help at the polls won't be limited in Minnesota under latest voting ... ›
  • Restrictions on absentee voting eased in Minnesota - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Minnesota Absentee Ballots - Vote.org ›
  • Yes, Minnesota could move to vote-by-mail for the 2020 election. No ... ›
  • Older Minnesota voters file suit to change absentee voting rules ... ›
  • Vote early by mail - Minnesota Secretary Of State ›
absentee voting
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

But what can I do?

Pedro Silva

Are large donor networks still needed to win in a fairer election system?

Paige Chan

Independent voters want to be heard. Is anybody listening?

David Thornburgh
John Opdycke

The U.S. has been seeking the center since the days of Teddy Roosevelt

Dave Anderson

Imperfection and perseverance

Jeff Clements

We’ve expanded the Supreme Court before. It’s time to do so again.

Anushka Sarkar
latest News

Podcast: 100% Democracy

Our Staff
4h

Americans want action on gun control, but the Senate can’t move forward

David Meyers
23h

Podcast: Why conspiracy theories thrive in both democracies and autocracies

Our Staff
25 May

Nearly 20 states have restricted private funding of elections

David Meyers
24 May

Video: Will Trump run in 2024?

Our Staff
24 May

The state of voting: May 23, 2022

Our Staff
23 May
Videos

Video: Helping loved ones divided by politics

Our Staff

Video: What happened in Virginia?

Our Staff

Video: Infrastructure past, present, and future

Our Staff

Video: Beyond the headlines SCOTUS 2021 - 2022

Our Staff

Video: Should we even have a debt limit

Our Staff

Video: #ListenFirstFriday Yap Politics

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Did economists move the Democrats to the right?

Our Staff
02 May

Podcast: The future of depolarization

Our Staff
11 February

Podcast: Sore losers are bad for democracy

Our Staff
20 January

Deconstructed Podcast from IVN

Our Staff
08 November 2021
Recommended
Podcast: 100% Democracy

Podcast: 100% Democracy

Leadership
people talking

But what can I do?

Leveraging big ideas
Shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas

Americans want action on gun control, but the Senate can’t move forward

Congress
Podcast: Why conspiracy theories thrive in both democracies and autocracies

Podcast: Why conspiracy theories thrive in both democracies and autocracies

Big Picture
First-ever majority-female New York city council

Are large donor networks still needed to win in a fairer election system?

Campaign Finance
Independent voters want to be heard. Is anybody listening?

Independent voters want to be heard. Is anybody listening?

Voting