By hook or crook, Dems are going all out this election year.
Via Twin Cities Pioneer Press:
Minnesota Democrats have sued to get Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s name removed from the state’s general election ballots.
The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party’s Thursday lawsuit claims the Minnesota Republican Party failed to nominate its presidential electors, the people who cast the state’s 10 electoral college votes, in accordance with state law. Keith Downey, the chair of the Minnesota Republican Party, said last month that the party called a special meeting to approve alternative electors because it had previously neglected to do so.
The suit, which was filed directly to the Minnesota Supreme Court, adds a new level of chaos to an already strange election season. It could cause the parties to spend some of the rushed final eight weeks of the election fighting in court, distracting from other campaigning. While the suit is a technical one, if successful, it could affect the entire presidential election.
“It is incumbent upon political parties to follow the rules binding our elections and in this instance it does not appear that the Minnesota Republican Party did so,” said Ken Martin, the chair of the DFL Party. The DFL said last month that it did not plan to sue over the issue.
Downey did not immediately return a call for comment Thursday night. Last month, Downey said he was not aware “that the secretary of state wouldn’t place our candidates on the ballot, even though that paperwork was submitted completely, until the electors were finalized” until the week before the filings were due. He said the party had previously submitted what it had thought was the necessary paperwork a month earlier.
To finish the process, the party called an executive committee meeting to select alternative electors to join the 10 electors it had nominated at its state convention in May. Then it submitted the final paperwork, and Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon accepted the filing and added Trump and vice presidential candidate Mike Pence as choices in the Nov. 8 election.