Despite Legal Challenge from MVA, Walz and Minnesota Legislature Effect Sweeping Election Reform Prior to 2024 Election
October 31, 2024
By: Katy Bortz
Governor and Vice President Harris’s VP pick, Tim Walz, and the Minnesota state legislature enacted several election reform provisions that will affect this year’s presidential election. Two of those reforms are the focus of litigation brought by the Minnesota Voters Alliance. The first is a re-enfranchisement law and the second deals with election misinformation.
In 2023 the Minnesota Legislature passed the Re-Enfranchisement Act, which restored the voting rights of convicted felons upon release from incarceration. The law was signed by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and took effect on July 1, 2023. It allows people with felony conviction histories who are out on probation, community release, or parole to have their right to vote restored ahead of the November election. In practical terms, this means that 55,000 formerly incarcerated Minnesotans are eligible to vote in the 2024 election cycle.
The Minnesota Voters Alliance (MVA) is a self-described election “watchdog” organization that takes legal action to protect liberty. The organization is a nonpartisan nonprofit and is run by Executive Director Andy Cilek. MVA has made several local and national news headlines with its election law litigation.
Just prior to the re-enfrancisement law taking effect, MVA filed suit claiming that the voting rights restoration of formerly incarcerated people was unconstitutional under the state’s constitution. The case was dismissed on August 7, 2024, when The Supreme Court of Minnesota found MVA to lack standing in the case. However, MVA continues to stand firm in its belief that this felon rights restoration is against the state constitution and, thus, wants to tell voters that “felons who have not served their full sentences, or otherwise had their sentences discharged, cannot legally vote.” This language came into direct controversy with the recent Minnesota state election law regarding the spread of false election information.
In the same legislative session as the Re-Enfranchisement Act, the Minnesota Legislature passed a comprehensive set of voting reforms referred to as the Democracy for the People Act. One of the key provisions in the act is a change to Section 211B.075 of the Minnesota Statutes. The code now makes intentionally spreading false election information a gross misdemeanor if done within 60 days of an election. The code attaches both civil and criminal penalties. Thus, the statements made by MVA about felon disenfranchisement seems to violate this law.
MVA responded by filing a lawsuit in September 2023, claiming that the law placing penalties on disinformation violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments. However, the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota held on September 17, 2024 that MVA failed to successfully demonstrate that this provision of the Democracy for the People Act was unconstitutional.
While this is a win for those concerned about false information circulating and preventing those who can and wish to vote from properly doing so, it is worth considering that the law only penalizes the spread of this false information within 60 days of the election. With increased polarization and early voting already beginning, disinformation 61 or more days prior to the election could still have very harmful effects. In Minnesota, early voting began on Friday, September 21, which is 46 days before the November 5th election. This means voters could have received intentionally spread false information as close as 2 weeks prior to voting and that remains completely legal. But with Minnesota offering Election Day same-day voter registration, if the false information was about the change in felon re-enfranchisement, those voters have until election day to receive correct information and access to the ballot.