Minnesota
Minnesota enacts automatic voter registration, penalties for election misinformation
ST. PAUL — Numerous Minnesotans can be robotically registered to vote in future elections beneath a invoice signed into regulation Friday, Might 5, by Gov. Tim Walz.
That change to state election regulation and others, together with preregistration for 16- and 17-year-olds and a everlasting absentee poll choice, will assist Minnesota stay a pacesetter in voter participation, stated the Democratic-Farmer-Labor governor and lawmakers.
“It builds on Minnesota’s proud custom of strengthening, increasing, investing within the voices of Minnesotans,” stated Rep. Emma Greenman, a Minneapolis DFLer who was the invoice’s essential creator within the Home. “We’re selecting to be a north star by increasing the liberty to vote and strengthening the ability of voters in our elections.”
Lawmakers, advocates and state officers together with Secretary of State Steve Simon, the state’s high elections official, joined the governor for a invoice signing on the state Capitol on Friday.
Simon famous that it has been virtually 50 years since Minnesota turned one of many first states to enact same-day voter registration — one thing he known as the “crown jewel” of the state’s election legal guidelines.
“The truth that Minnesota has among the highest voter turnout in America 12 months after 12 months, after 12 months, will not be an accident,” Simon stated. “It is not one thing within the water; Minnesotans worth voting, interval.”
Minnesota has tended to be one of many high states for voter turnout, and led the nation with 80% of eligible voters casting a poll in 2020. Within the 2022 midterm elections, which generally see decrease turnout, Minnesota had a 60% voter turnout.
Minnesota’s subsequent statewide election is in 2024. Underneath the brand new regulation, functions for the next would end in computerized voter registration:
- New or renewed driver’s license or state identification card
- Preliminary or renewal utility for MinnesotaCare or Medical Help
- Utility for advantages or companies to a different taking part company
The invoice DFLers name the “Democracy for the Individuals Act” additionally creates new penalties for election misinformation and interfering with ballot staff.
Spreading false details about voting 60 days forward of an election and harassing or intimidating election officers or voters could be a gross misdemeanor.
Whereas DFLers say the adjustments will increase participation in elections and shield democracy, Republican critics stated the invoice’s passage and enactment violate a practice on the Capitol the place elections payments typically go with help from each events.
The invoice handed the Home 70-57 and the Senate 34-33, each on occasion strains, one thing Republicans argued might damage belief within the system.
Along with the registration and misinformation regulation adjustments, the invoice would alter state marketing campaign finance guidelines to position checks on company affect on Minnesota elections. Presently, teams that aren’t straight affiliated with candidates have important freedom to spend cash on elections with out disclosing their donors.
The “Democracy for the Individuals Act” would search to shut this so-called darkish cash loophole by requiring reporting on unbiased spending. It additionally goals to bar foreign-influenced companies from influencing elections.
Republican opponents raised issues that new marketing campaign finance disclosure necessities would unfairly intervene with companies’ capacity to take part in politics, probably violating the precedent set by the 2009 “Residents United” determination from the U.S. Supreme Court docket.
Additionally they protested that Walz prior to now stated adjustments to the state’s election legal guidelines must be payments that go with bipartisan help.
Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska, the highest Republican on the Home Elections Committee, raised issues that most of the provisions within the invoice, together with the misinformation and company cash restrictions, would possibly appeal to lawsuits.
Altering the state’s election legal guidelines is a high precedence for the governor and Democratic lawmakers, who received management of the Senate again from Republicans in November and now management each chambers of the Legislature.
Earlier this 12 months, Walz signed into regulation restoring voting rights to greater than 50,000 felons on probation in Minnesota.
Different election adjustments headed towards turning into regulation embrace Minnesota committing its Electoral School votes to presidential candidates who win the nationwide fashionable vote.
There’s additionally a proposal to alter the definition of main occasion standing that might make it tougher for smaller events to be assured a spot on the statewide poll.
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Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the NFL’s owners will meet on August 27 to vote on a rule allowing a portion of franchises to be sold to private equity firms.
Previously, the Commissioner had asked the owners to hold the date. The actual meeting hinged on the committee that has been considering the private equity issue coming up with a firm and final proposal.
Factors include the maximum percentage of a team that can be sold to private-equity firms (it’s expected to be 10 percent), whether one team can sell slivers to multiple firms, whether one firm can own pieces of multiple teams, and whether teams will be able to buy back the percentages of the franchise that have been sold to private-equity firms.
While potential tweaks to the kickoff rule aren’t officially on the agenda, the meeting represents the last, best chance to make changes. By then, the preseason will be over, and the regular season will be nine days away. Given the league’s strong reluctance to change the rules during a given season, any adjustment to the kickoff rule that requires a vote of the owners will need to happen then.
The biggest question is whether the owners will consider moving the touchback point from the 30 to the 35. Absent the adjustment, there’s a good chance that many if not most if not all teams will kick out of the end zone and concede the 30 — especially if the average starting field position with the new formation is in the vicinity of the 30, anyway.
For now, it’s not on the agenda. Within the next 10 days, it could be. If it isn’t, there’s a chance that the so-called dynamic kickoff will be no different than the dead-and-buried kickoff of 2023.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Department of Public Safety Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) has released the 2023 Uniform Crime Report, a summary of crime data submitted by local law enforcement agencies.
Notable data from the 2023 Minnesota Uniform Crime Report:
- Minnesota saw a 6.9 percent decrease in violent crime in 2023. Violent crime in the seven-county Twin Cities Metro Area (Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington counties) decreased by 8.2 percent. Violent crime in greater Minnesota decreased by 3.4 percent.
- There were 181 murders in 2023 in Minnesota compared with 182 in 2022. Firearms were involved in 69.6 percent of the incidents, down from 73.1 percent in 2022.
- There were 9,986 aggravated assaults in 2023, which is 3.4 percent lower than 2022.
- There were 2,053 rapes in 2023, a decrease of 11.85 percent. Most of the rapes occurred in a home (72.6 percent) and 40.5 percent of the victims were minors.
- Motor vehicle theft decreased 6.8 percent in 2023 with 15,612 vehicles stolen as compared to 16,743 in 2022. Carjacking incidents decreased 37.8 percent with 372 incidents in 2023, compared with 598 in 2022. Carjacking incidents are not counted as motor vehicle thefts.
- There were 72,701 incidents of larceny in 2023 – the lowest number in 55 years.
- Bias crimes rose in 2023 with 180 incidents reported.
- Law enforcement use-of-force incidents involving discharge of a firearm dropped in 2023 to 16, two fewer than in 2022.
- Peace officers were assaulted in 961 incidents in 2023, a 0.9 percent increase from 2022.
The complete 2023 Uniform Crime Report can be accessed on the BCA website. The Minnesota Crime Data Explorer and additional years’ reports can be found on the same page.
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MINNEAPOLIS — If Friday’s cloudy and cooler weather has you excited for autumn, you’re not alone.
The start of meteorological fall, Sept. 1, is just about two weeks away and the Climate Prediction Center just released their outlook for the season.
Typically over September, October and November, the Twin Cities has an average temperature of about 49 degrees. If you remember last fall, conditions were well above average, with an average temperature of about 53 degrees.
Fall of 2023 was also wetter than average around the metro, with more than 10 inches of rainfall, compared to the average of 7.21 inches.
Like it or not, October also typically brings our first snow of the season with about 7.5 inches of snow through the end of November. One of the more shocking stats of the season — from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30, we lose about four hours of daylight.
A driving factor of this year’s forecast is the fact we’re transitioning away from El Nino into a La Nina. Currently, it’s in a neutral phase, but La Nina is likely by October.
According to the Climate Prediction Center, it is more likely that we’re going to be warmer than average, not just across Minnesota and Wisconsin, but really most of the country.
But when it comes to precipitation in our part of the world, it’s a little tougher to decipher what La Nina is going to mean for us. So it’s more of a toss up with the drier conditions looking to stay farther south.
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