Minnesota State Wire

In a novel legal approach, the Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) cited the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) in a complaint filed against Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon over duplicate voter registrations.

“This is the first time a voter list maintenance complaint has been filed under HAVA,” PILF President J. Christian Adams said in a May statement. “This is an innovative approach to clean voter rolls and improve election integrity. PILF is leading the way in cutting edge legal strategy to protect free and fair elections. This complaint will result in removing the duplicate registrants from Minnesota’s voter roll.”

In legal action against other states over poor maintenance of their voter rolls, PILF has cited provisions in the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), but PILF spokesperson Lauren Bowman explained to Minnesota State Wire that Minnesota is exempt from the act because it offered same-day registration at the time the NRVA was passed in 1993. The state continues to offer same-day registration, she said.  

She added that thus far Minnesota is the group's only HAVA case.

HAVA, passed by Congress in 2002, provides federal funding so states can modernize their voting systems.  

PILF’s Minnesota complaint points out that HAVA specifies that that list maintenance performed under the law must ensure that: “(i) the name of each registered voter appears in the computerized list; (ii) only voters who are not  registered or who are not eligible to vote are removed from the computerized list; and (iii) duplicate names are eliminated from the computerized list.”

But the complaint says research by a “data scientist” shows that Minnesota’s voter rolls have more than 500 duplicate registrations.

PILF requested a hearing on the matter before the Minnesota Office of Administrative Hearings.

In a response to the complaint, the Secretary of State's office said that the "Statewide Voter Registration System, which the office administers, contains tools that allow election officials to identify potentially duplicate voter records. Under state law, it is ultimately the responsibility of the county auditors to use these tools to remove duplicate registrations." 

The office said that a hearing concerning the complaint would be scheduled the week of July 11, 2022

PILF has had success in filing legal action against other states over poor voter roll maintenance. In its most recent victory, a federal judge ruled that Pennsylvania must turn over voter records showing that non-citizens are registered to vote, and have voted, in elections. PILF cited the NVRA in its arguments.