By Rachel E. Stassen-Berger
rstassen-berger@ pioneerpress.com
Updated: 07/24/2009
The Minnesota Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit that claimed the state elections system wasn't updated as quickly as it should have been after the 2008 election.
The court found that it didn't have the jurisdiction to decide on the merits of the suit, which was filed in May by a group called the Minnesota Majority, a conservative advocacy group, against Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and local elections officials.
"Improving the accuracy of the voter registration database is a laudable goal. But our jurisdiction ... is limited," the court wrote. The order, filed Wednesday, was unanimous, but Justice Christopher Dietzen recused himself. Dietzen did sign an earlier order regarding the case.
Minnesota Majority and some citizens, including three Republican House members, among them gubernatorial candidate Rep. Tom Emmer, claimed there was a major problem in the state elections system because there were more ballots counted than voters registered in the state voter database.
When the suit was first filed in May, the discrepancy between ballots and registrants was about 28,000, according to the secretary of state, but that number has diminished.
Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann said the numbers of registrants in the database and the numbers of voters who voted will never be an exact match for a variety of reasons.
For instance, when people die their registrations are inactivated, and when people cast absentee ballots that arrive late, they are given a voter history in the database, but their votes aren't counted in the election, he said.
The dismissal from the state Supreme Court is unlikely to stop the petitioners' quest for a deeper look into the state's elections system.
Minnesota Majority attorney Erick Kaardal said the petitioners could sue counties individually over voter database problems or take other legal steps.
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