Absentee Ballot Boards: Ground Zero for Minnesota Elections

| Lawsuits consolidated against Minneapolis, Duluth, and Ramsey and Olmsted Counties for illegally constituting and running absentee ballot review boards |

In Minnesota this fall, as many as two million ballots will be processed by local absentee ballot boards, virtually none of which follow the laws governing staffing the boards and reviewing the ballot envelopes for legitimacy.

After months of research and preparation, the Minnesota Voters Alliance has challenged several major cities and counties for violating the laws governing the process for reviewing and accepting or rejecting absentee ballots.

For years, Minnesota Election officials have violated ballot board selection laws by using city or county staff to perform the duties of accepting and rejecting absentee ballots.

The law, however, requires (1) that the ballot board be composed of election judges from lists submitted by the major political parties, (2) that each member of the ballot board declare his or her party affiliation, (3) that city and county staff (except for “deputies”) may not serve on the board, and (4) that election judges from both major parties review each absentee ballot envelope that is mailed in and either accept or reject it.

These targeted cities and counties simply ignore the law, deploy biased city insiders to accept and reject ballots, and sidestep all outside scrutiny over their handling of mailed-in ballots.

Read the rest at Election Integrity Watch.