Lawsuit against election officials dismissed

A lawsuit alleging Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and 31 county election officials failed to comply with election laws has been dismissed.

Minnesota Majority, which named McLeod County Auditor Cindy Schultz as a respondent in the suit, alleged more election ballots were cast last November in McLeod County than there were eligible voters, according to the statewide voter registry. The registry is used to generate the voter sign-in lists at polling places.

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday (July 22) issued an order saying it wouldn’t hear the case. The order, signed by Chief Justice Eric J. Magnuson, said the matter is outside the state Supreme Court’s jurisdiction.

“Improving the accuracy of the voter registration database is a laudable goal,” Magnuson wrote. “But our jurisdiction under (Minnesota Statute) 204B.44(d) is limited to ordering the the correction of ‘any wrongful act, omission, or error’ of election officials or others ‘charged with any duty concerning an election.’”

The court determined the statute restricts its jurisdiction to settling disputes regarding only a specific election, not conduct relating to or possibly affecting elections in general.

Magnuson wrote that maintaining the statewide voter registration database is a duty that concerns elections in general and, “to the extent that petitioners suggest their claims concern the 2008 general election, they request no relief specific to that election. Moreover, the time for contesting any irregularity in the conduct of the 2008 election has long since passed.”

Attorney Erick Kaardal of Mohrman & Kaardal, who represented Minnesota Majority and other petitioners, could not be reached for comment before this story went to press.

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)