Author: Christopher J. Valentino

A poll worker at Martin Luther King Center in St. Paul on Election Day 2020. Photo by Nicole Neri/minnesotadigest.com.This is part of an occasional series on election administration. Read part 1, “Who does what?” Part 2, “Who can vote in Minnesota?” Part 3: “How and why polling places are computerized.” Part 4: “How absentee voting works.”  Part 5: “Reconciliation.” Election officials do their best to get results out on election night or the next morning, but always with a note that they are unofficial. Perhaps preliminary would be a better word than unofficial.  These results do come from an official source, unlike news reports of…

Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen speaks as supporters cheer behind him at a rally at an Apple Valley Cowboy JackÕs Wednesday, May 4, 2022Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen on Tuesday said his past comparison of COVID-19 public health policies to Nazism was “legitimate.” Back in April, Jensen said the steps taken to curb COVID-19 spread were comparable to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, citing Kristallnacht — two nights in November when violent mobs destroyed synagogues, businesses and homes. Likening COVID-19 policies to a repeat of Nazism were justifiable, Jensen said in a video posted to his campaign Facebook page on…

Getty Images. Minnesota crisis pregnancy centers target low-income people and provide misleading information about abortion and contraception, according to Attorney General Keith Ellison. Ellison on Tuesday issued a consumer alert for Minnesotans warning that crisis pregnancy centers tout comprehensive health care but actually push pregnant people away from abortion — often through deceiving messaging and methods. Minnesota has 90 crisis pregnancy centers, far outnumbering the state’s eight abortion clinics, according to a report by The Alliance: State Advocates for Women’s Rights & Gender Equality. “As Minnesota’s chief consumer advocate and legal officer, I want to alert Minnesotans that crisis pregnancy…

Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty ImagesThis is part of an occasional series on election administration. Read part 1, “Who does what?” Part 2, “Who can vote in Minnesota?” Part 3: “How and why polling places are computerized.” Part 4: “How absentee voting works.”  Election workers count. Not just in the figurative sense of mattering, but in the literal sense of one, two, three. And they don’t just count votes. They routinely count all kinds of paperwork as a pervasive mechanism for ensuring elections run as they ought to. In particular, election workers check that counts that ought to match up do match up, once…

Sen. Amy Klobuchar called for both more police funding and more reform. Photo by Tasos Katopodis-Pool/Getty Images. Republicans on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee and law enforcement witnesses at a Tuesday hearing blamed recent violence against officers on anti-police rhetoric, while Democrats distanced themselves from the “defund the police” slogan and said an oversupply of guns made law enforcement jobs more dangerous. Republicans on the panel raised complaints about general attitudes toward police and members of both parties criticized progressive activists’ calls to “defund the police,” which peaked after the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020.…

Workers in a pork processing plant, 2016. Photo courtesy of U.S. General Accountability Office. Faced with court rulings that say a Trump administration directive doesn’t protect Tyson Foods from liability caused by workers’ deaths due to COVID-19, the food giant is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the matter. Arguing that recent court rulings against the company will have “drastic consequences for the next national emergency,” Tyson has told the nation’s high court that private companies “will not be so eager to willingly aid the federal government in a crisis” if those rulings are allowed to…

A federal appellate court ruled in favor of unions, including Education Minnesota, of which Denise Specht is president. Courtesy photo.A federal appeals court ruled Monday that four public workers are not entitled to a refund of past union fees, a victory for government unions. The case has to do with so-called fair share fees, which unions collect from nonunion workers for bargaining and to enforce labor contracts. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that gathering “fair share” fees was unconstitutional in a landmark case called Janus v. AFSCME. Three teachers sued Education Minnesota shortly after the Janus decision, seeking…

Election administrators face their most challenging circumstances, perhaps in all of American history. Photo by Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder. MADISON, Wis. — Elections officials from 33 states, gathered for a conference under tight security, warned that the next few election cycles will be affected by paper shortages and the potential for threats from inside elections offices. The meeting of the National Association of State Elections Directors this week was held with stringent security precautions, given the ongoing threats and harassment faced by elections officials across the country in the years since the 2020 election.  Organizers didn’t publicly share the location of…

WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 7: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) gives the thumbs up as he leaves the Senate Chamber after passage of the Inflation Reduction Act at the U.S. Capitol August 7, 2022 in Washington, DC. The Senate worked overnight Saturday into Sunday as they moved toward final passage of Senate budget reconciliation deal, which Senate Democrats have named The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. The final vote was 51-50, with the tie-breaking vote being cast by Vice President Kamala Harris. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images. WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate, along party lines, passed a sweeping energy,…

Getty Images.A county attorney in west-central Minnesota filed a motion Thursday to appeal a ruling that strengthened Minnesota abortion rights. Traverse County Attorney Matthew Franzese — through the law firm the Thomas More Society — said the motion to intervene comes after Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced last week that he will not appeal a Ramsey County judge’s ruling that expanded abortion access in the state. The Thomas More Society is a conservative law firm that has litigated issues including election administration, abortion rights and vaccine mandates. The Ramsey County judge last month struck down laws related to parental…