Election Info You Might Not Know
Do you know election laws? Do you understand the process? How to be an election judge? How many Americans are not registered to vote? Have you seen some of the latest news on our elections?
Set expectations
Elections should be -Observable, Transparent, and Auditable.
We should work hard to maintain party balance in all polling locations (that means citizens need to work the polls as trained election judges).
We should follow the laws allowing observation (we need poll watchers/ challengers), city and county officials should do their best to be transparent and follow all state laws.
And most importantly, chain of custody should be rigorously maintained so that the outcomes can be audited in order to demonstrate the quality of our elections. Election judges and poll challengers ensure the security of our ballots.
Above all- make sure you are registered and are exercising your right to vote, your vote is additive and essential to understanding the will of the people. #ValueTheVote
Election News- key current stories.
Upper Midwest Law Center: 2024 year in Review
James Dickey with the Upper Midwest Law Center is joined by Ryan Wilson to discuss significant legal battles from 2024 relating to many unconstitutional laws passed by the DFL "trifecta" in Minnesota during the 2023 and 2024 legislative sessions.
MN elections updates from the Center for the American Experiment
HD54A MN elections are ‘good enough for government work’
The Making of a Majority: How a 67-67 tie in the Minnesota House became a 68-66 majority
MN GOP files lawsuit against Walz seeking to halt House special election
The petition alleges that Walz "unlawfully issued a writ of special election for Minnesota House District 40B on December 27, 2024."
"The Republican Party of Minnesota is suing Gov. Tim Walz over the timing of a special election for a north metro House district that has been in the political spotlight in recent weeks."
The lawsuit comes as candidates for the special election have begun lining up for a Jan. 14 primary and Jan. 28 general election, which Walz set in his writ he announced on Dec. 27.
Alpha News has obtained the petition, which alleges that Walz “unlawfully issued a writ of special election for Minnesota House District 40B on December 27, 2024, and because Respondents are planning to unlawfully hold a special election on January 28, 2025, the Court should quash and declare invalid the writ, or order its recall, and enjoin any such special election from occurring on that date.”
"Tim Walz signed into law driver's licenses for illegal immigrants in Minnesota."
- Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill that lets people in the state, regardless of immigration status, apply for a license or an ID card.
- To get a license, people must meet certain requirements, including showing proof that they live in Minnesota, documentation proving their identity and passing a written test on the rules of the road and a driving skills test.
On March 7, 2023, as Minnesota governor, Walz signed H.F. 4, a bill that expanded access to driver’s licenses to people in the state, regardless of their immigration status. State House and Senate Democrats broadly supported the measure, and only one House Republican supported it.
This law reversed a 2003 order by former Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty that barred the state from issuing licenses to people who were in the country illegally.
Election essentials- Voter eligibility, election judges, and precincts.
Be a voter
To vote you must be:
- A U.S. citizen
- At least 18 years old on Election Day (16 & 17 year olds can pre-register)
- A resident of Minnesota for 20 days
- Not currently incarcerated for a felony conviction
- Not under a court order that revokes your right to vote
Elections Dictionary- Words you should know.
A good resource with candidate information is Ballotpedia. They even have a sample ballot look up with candidates listed in a drop down.
Become an Election Judge
You must be eligible to vote in Minnesota and able to read, write and speak English. Students 16 and 17 years-old can be election judge trainees.
There are restrictions on having relatives serve together as election judges. A relative is defined as a spouse, parent, stepparent, child, stepchild, sibling, or stepsibling.
Relatives cannot serve together in the same precinct at the same time. In addition, relatives of a candidate, and anyone who temporarily or permanently lives in the same house as a candidate, cannot serve in the precinct where the candidate is on the ballot.
Candidates cannot serve in a precinct where they are on the ballot.
Be informed
Follow issues, city council activities and school board meetings. Observe how your elected officials and boards operate. Ask questions and understand what spending decisions they are making. Are your elected officials making good decisions? When people provide public input are they listened to?
Voting- Are you Registered? And do you exercise that right?
Minnesota's non-voters
October 3, 2020
In 2016, the median age of a registered eligible voter was 51, while the median age of an unregistered eligible voter was 36.
Only 80% of eligible voters under 35 reported being registered, compared to 94% of those over 65.
Why Are Millions of Citizens Not Registered to Vote?
The nonvoters and the unregistered have limited confidence in their ability to affect their communities, the fact that they are less likely to engage in civic and volunteer activities than groups who vote more frequently is not surprising.
The unregistered differ in many ways from those who vote frequently: They are less interested in politics, less engaged in civic activities, and more cynical about their ability to understand and influence government, but they are not appreciably different on these measures from individuals who are registered but rarely vote.
Unregistered, likely GOP voters in Wisconsin, Michigan want to participate in November
There is good news, nearly two-thirds of the unregistered, likely Republican voters in Wisconsin and Michigan, want to get registered in time to vote in November.
A new survey from Campaign Now says there is a huge number of untapped, and unregistered voters who lean toward the right and 25% of them want help in getting registered.
Connors said most of the unregistered likely Republicans have been too busy with work and their families, while a sizable chunk simply do trust their local election officials
More than 10 Million Gun Owners and Hunters are not registered to vote in America.
More than 10 million hunters and gun owners are not registered to vote in America, according to a new grassroots voter-registration group firing warning shots at the GOP. https://nypost.com/2024/07/09/...
Vote4America data show that if Republicans don’t address political apathy among their gun-owning base in key swing states, they’ll have far fewer voters in their arsenal to score victories this November.
The low-propensity Christian voter
The problem, the "real problem" of millions of Evangelical voters failing to vote in elections. The estimate is that between 40 million and 45 million Evangelicals do not vote.
Evangelicals are passive voters – they typically vote for the right causes and candidates … when they show up at the polls.
Looking for the 'don't vote' and unregistered Evangelicals
"It's the largest single constituency in the electorate. It's bigger than the Hispanic vote, the African American vote, and the union vote combined,".
"We estimate among evangelical Christians alone, it's about 17 million [that don't go to the polls] – about half of whom are not registered, and about half of whom are registered but don't vote,"
