• 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>

Minnesota mail voting easements extended through the fall

Shirin Ali
August 04, 2020
Minnesota absentee voting

Secretary of State Steve Simon has dropped a requirement that absentee ballots be witnessed and will extend the time for ballots to arrive by mail.

Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

Voting rights advocates in Minnesota have secured another win, extending and even expanding for the presidential election the eased treatment of mailed ballots they had secured for next week's primary.

The requirement that absentee ballots be signed by a second person will be waived in November, and envelopes postmarked by the time the polls close Nov. 3 will be counted even if they are delayed in the mail as long as a week.

Getting rid of such witness requirements and tight deadlines for accepting mailed ballots are two of the pillars of the Democrats' expansive effort to make voting by mail easier and more reliable through the courthouses of at least 18 states. The Republicans are fighting them in almost every instance.


The Minnesota Alliance for Retired Americans Education Fund and four voters first challenged the regulations in a lawsuit filed in May. A state judge the next month approved an agreement that only applied to next Tuesday's primary, and that only extended by two days the window for tabulating ballots mailed by election day. State law says the envelopes must be at counting centers when the polls close.

The agreement expanding on that deal was announced Monday.

"This is a major victory for voters in Minnesota who will now face fewer unnecessary barriers to the ballot box as we deal with the current health crisis," said Eric Holder, the attorney general during the Obama administration who now runs the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, an arm of which sponsored the lawsuit.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The plaintiffs said only one in eight votes — or about half the national average — arrived by mail in the 2018 midterm, when Minnesota again led the nation in overall turnout. The coronavirus pandemic would potentially push many of these voters to cast absentee ballots, creating confusion for thousands of voters who aren't accustomed to the absentee voting system.

The agreement is part of a string of legal victories for good governance groups and Democrats in the state, which President Trump is considering contesting after losing its 10 electoral votes by just 45,000 votes four years ago.

Also this year, one federal judge blocked a state law limiting assistance to voters in completing absentee ballots, while another federal judge blocked the state's ballot order rules, which mandate that major political party candidates be listed in reverse order based on their vote share in recent elections, and declared a lottery system will be used instead.

From Your Site Articles
  • Help at the polls won't be limited in Minnesota under latest voting ›
  • Minnesota limits on voting helpers is illegal - The Fulcrum ›
  • Voting by mail gets boost in Illinois and Minnesota ›
  • Minnesota is the latest state sued over absentee voting - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Vote Early - Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services ›
  • Older Minnesota voters file suit to change absentee voting rules ... ›
  • How to get an absentee ballot for the Minnesota State Primary ... ›
  • Vote early by mail - Minnesota Secretary Of State ›
absentee voting
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Imperfection and perseverance

Jeff Clements

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

Anushka Sarkar

The ‘great replacement theory’ is nonsense

Debilyn Molineaux

Caught in a draft

Lawrence Goldstone

Congress shows signs of bipartisanship with retirement benefits bill

Mario H. Lopez

Fair representation: More Black people needed in STEM today

Jennifer Stimpson
latest News

GOP split: Far right gains ground in East, while losing out West

Steven Rosenfeld
8m

Podcast: Women in and out of politics

Our Staff
1h

Democratic senators seek $20 billion in election funding

Reya Kumar
15h

Podcast: A conversation with former Rep. Carlos Curbelo

Our Staff
19 May

Elections require more consistent federal funding, per report

Reya Kumar
18 May

Podcast: A new understanding of the right

Our Staff
18 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
Doug Mastriano

GOP split: Far right gains ground in East, while losing out West

Leveraging big ideas
Podcast: Women in and out of politics

Podcast: Women in and out of politics

Leadership
Statue of William Henry Seward

Imperfection and perseverance

Civic Ed
​Sen. Amy Klobuchar

Democratic senators seek $20 billion in election funding

Government
Podcast: A conversation with former Rep. Carlos Curbelo

Podcast: A conversation with former Rep. Carlos Curbelo

Leadership
Supreme Court expansion protest

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

Judicial