FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jana Kooren, 651.645.4097x123 or jkooren@aclu-mn.org
Minnesotans who registered to vote online should not have their registrations invalidated
St. Paul, MN – The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota filed a brief, in a lawsuit challenging the online voter registration system, arguing that individuals who properly used the online voter registration system should not have their registrations invalidated. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was sued this fall by four legislators, the Minnesota Voters Alliance and Minnesota Majority after he created and implemented an online voter registration system; they argued that Ritchie did not have the authority to create the new system.
The ACLU-MN did not take a position in its brief whether or not Ritchie did in fact have the authority to implement online voter registration. Instead the brief focuses on the more than 2,000 individuals who registered through the new system. In their lawsuit the petitioners argue that the individuals who registered online should have to re-register. The ACLU-MN counters that argument by saying that because the information collected in the online form met all the statutory requirements necessary to register to vote in the State of Minnesota the registrant has complied with Minnesota election law and should remain on the voter rolls even if Secretary Ritchie did not have the authority to permit online registration.
"The right to vote is fundamental to who we are as a country. These voters registered using a system they believed to be valid. They should not have their right to vote called into question because of a political fight," stated Charles Samuelson, Executive Director of the ACLU-MN.
Cooperating attorneys in the case were William Pentelovitch and Emma Greenman of Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand, LLP and Teresa Nelson, Legal Director of the ACLU-MN.