The Minnesota Participation Project actively supports election laws that make voting fair and accessible for all citizens. Current priorities include:

• Supporting early voting proposals
  Early voting allows voters to cast their ballot in the days prior to Election Day. Voters could go into their local election office, confirm their voting eligibility, and fill out their ballot. Early voting enables election officials to address on the spot many of the problems that may occur, such as incorrectly filled out ballots, mismatched signatures, or voters having the incorrect ballot, all giving voters more assurance their vote will be counted. An early voting process would allow individuals to resolve problems with their voter eligibility in a reasonable time period. It relieves poll congestion on Election Day and facilitates more widespread voter participation. 32 states currently have early voting processes in place.
  

• Opposing the photo-only mandate at the polls
  Voter impersonation has never been an issue for Minnesota. The photo-only mandate will frustrate or outright suppress legitimate voters while not adding any real security to the system. Learn more
  

• Supporting absentee ballots without a required excuse
  Minnesota’s current absentee ballot process requires absentee voters to state one of four reasons for requesting to vote absentee (absence from precinct on Election Day, a conflicting religious observance of religious holiday, an illness or disability, or service as election judge in another precinct)  Minnesota’s law should be changed to allow for no excuse mail-in voting, allowing any eligible voter in Minnesota to request to vote by mail without requiring a specific reason why. Currently 28 states allow for no-excuse mail-in voting.
  
  

• Automatic Registration and Improved Registration
  There are number of potential improvements to the registration system. Voters should be able to check the status of their registration online with the Secretary of State to clarify their status and catch problems with their registration before Election Day. The Minnesota Department of Motor Vehicles should automatically register people when they apply for their driver’s license with the option to opt-out for those who do not wish to be registered. Applications would be cross-checked with an array databases to identify individuals who are not eligible to vote. Steps like this would allow for a reduction in the number of people who register and re-register by using data that the government has already collected. This reduces administrative time and costs and decrease barriers to voting.

2010 legislative session election laws

Bills signed into law include:

• Chapter 201 : This bill  includes a variety of technical and procedural changes related to election administration.  New substantive provisions related to filling a vacancy in the U.S. House of Representatives, authority for local jurisdictions to postpone certain elections due to inclement weather, and the right of an employee to take time off from work to cast a ballot during any part of the day on election day are also contained in this bill.  This bill also addresses issues related to exit polling, and includes provisions related to the use of certain court, corrections, and public safety data in updating the statewide voter registration system.
• Chapter 194: Ballot board use required to process absentee ballots, absentee ballots permitted to be counted starting on the fourth day prior to election, and other absentee ballot processing procedures modified.
  
• Chapter 184 : Moves the state primary election to the second Tuesday in August in order to comply with new federal law.

2009 legislative session election laws  
During the 2009 legislative session, we advocated for a number of changes to the election law system, including those listed below.

Some election reform bills heard in the 2009 legislative session:

None of these measures were signed into law during the 2009 legislative session.  The Governor vetoed the elections omnibus bill, an improved registration bill, as well as improvements in the civil rights restoration notification process.