Republicans Drop Challenge to Minnesota’s Mail-In Voting Deal
Republicans Drop Challenge to Minnesota’s Mail-In Voting Deal
(Bloomberg) -- Minnesota Republicans are dropping their challenge to a settlement between state election officials and a Democratic-backed nonprofit organization intended to improve mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic.
The state party and the Republican National Committee had appealed to block the July deal, under which Minnesota agreed to extend the deadline for accepting mail-in votes until a week after Election Day and scrap rules requiring voters to have witnesses sign absentee ballots. Republicans argued the coronavirus threat in November was speculative and that the changes weren’t in the public interest.
But on Tuesday, lawyers for the Republicans as well as President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign -- all of which sought to intervene in the case to back the existing rules -- advised the state appellate court in Minneapolis they won’t pursue the appeal, without giving a reason.
The July deal resolved a lawsuit filed in May -- one of dozens of voting cases pending across the U.S. A nonprofit for retirees argued the deadline extension was needed to deal with the expected flood of mail-in ballots as Americans avoid crowded polling places, while the signature requirement was deemed problematic due to social distancing guidelines.
“We will not sit by and let Republican election officials, or the president, disenfranchise voters in a cynical effort to win elections at all costs,” Marc Elias, a lawyer for several Democratic organizations who represents the plaintiffs in the Minnesota case, said Tuesday in a statement.
Benjamin L. Ellison, a lawyer for the Republicans with Jones Day in Minneapolis, didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
A judge signed off on the settlement on Aug. 3, rejecting the Republicans’ claim that the deal “rests on mere speculation that Covid-19 will render voting unsafe in November.” The judge noted that Trump’s own tweet in which he mused about delaying the Nov. 3 election cited safety during the pandemic as his main concern.
Republicans “can’t have it both ways,” the judge said.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.