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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