Today, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison released updated guidance for Minnesotans on their right to vote safely and free from intimidation and misinformation. A new page on his website details the state and federal legal protections Minnesotans have when casting a ballot and participating in their democracy. He also released a new Election Report Form that Minnesotans can use if they encounter any challenges exercising their right to vote.
“Minnesota has strong protections in place to ensure all eligible voters can cast their ballots and make their voices heard, and the webpage we are launching today puts that extremely important information one click away,” said Attorney General Ellison. “Minnesotans cherish our democracy and our freedom to vote, and I am confident Minnesota’s elections will continue to be as safe, free, and fair as ever. I do not anticipate needing to enforce these laws, but I will not hesitate to do so in order to keep our elections free from force, threats, or disinformation weaponized to keep Minnesotans from the ballot box.”
The guidance Ellison released includes information about laws that keep Minnesotans free of intimidation and interference when voting and laws detailing the help voters who need assistance when voting are allowed to receive, as well as new state laws prohibiting election-related deep fakes and disinformation, protecting election workers from intimidating and interference, and restoring the right to vote to people with felony convictions if they are no longer incarcerated. This new guidance updates previous guidance Attorney General Ellison issued in October 2020.
With early voting already begun in Minnesota, Attorney General Ellison encourages voters to bookmark the page and share it with friends and family.
Voters with questions about voting or other concerns about Minnesota’s elections should contact the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office at (877) 600-VOTE.
The release of this voting rights website and the Election Complaint Form is the latest effort by Attorney General Ellison to ensure Minnesota’s elections remain free, fair, and secure.
In October 2020, when Attorney General Ellison learned an out-of-state private security company was planning to send armed civilians to stand outside Minnesota’s polling places on election day, Ellison immediately launched an investigation and swiftly secured a binding court agreement preventing that company from sending armed individuals to polling places.
Attorney General Ellison is a strong supporter of the Restore the Vote Act, which restores the right to vote to Minnesotans with felony convictions who are no longer incarcerated: he first introduced the bill in 2003, when he was a state representative and strongly supported its passage in 2023. In October 2023, he intervened against the attempt by a Mille Lacs County judge to unilaterally declare the law unconstitutional, which was blocked by the Minnesota Court of Appeals, and on August 7, 2024, his legal defense of the Act proved successful when the Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit that challenged it.
On September 17, 2024, Attorney General Ellison was successful in defending Minnesota’s new law that bars spreading disinformation about Minnesotans’ right to vote when a federal district court found it constitutional and dismissed a lawsuit that challenged its constitutionality.
