Minnesota lawmakers hoping to fast track bill aimed at preventing voter party affiliation from going public
ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - Minnesota lawmakers are rolling out a bill Wednesday aimed at preventing your party affiliation from going public.
With the presidential primary less than a month away, lawmakers are hoping to fast track a change in state law to limit who has access to some of your voting information.
Wednesday afternoon, Secretary of State Steve Simon will join the bill’s House and Senate authors at the Minnesota State Capitol to unveil a bill aiming to prevent a voter’s party affiliation from becoming public.
Right now, the national Democratic and Republican parties require lists of who voted on which ballot. The intent of the law is to check for what they call “partisan interference”, or when a member of one party votes in the other party’s primary trying to get a weaker candidate nominated.
However, the party affiliation data also goes to state party chairs, and some people worry that information could be leaked—affecting their jobs or personal relationships.
"If one of the parties wanted to simply post it online and say, 'here Minnesota, you want to see who took the Republican ballot and who took the Democratic Party ballot? Here you go,'” Simon said. “We don’t see any impediment to that in current law, which is why we need a new law.”
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have voiced support for a bill increasing voter privacy, but they will have to act fast. They will only have 21 days from the start of the legislative session next week until the Minnesota primary on Super Tuesday—Tuesday, March 3.
This will be Minnesota’s first presidential primary since 1992 after lawmakers decided to stop using caucuses in 2016 due to overcrowding and other complaints.
Early voting for Minnesota’s presidential primary has already started.