Election Reform

If vetoes are like slapshot goals in hockey, then Gov. Tim Pawlenty scored an election-reform hat trick last week, vetoing first two smaller bills then an omnibus bill, meaning the state enacted no legislative response to flaws revealed by the Coleman-Franken fracas.

Minnesotans whose political preferences can’t be expressed within the outlines of a tiny oval aren’t likely to get relief this year from ballot reforms proposed at the state Legislature. That’s the message state Sen. Ann Rest and state Rep. Laura Brod had for the breed of voters whose enigmatically marked ballots were on display during the recent Senate recount.

***Updates added***

There’s a national trend that some say Minnesota is conspicuously absent.

Dozens of states have recently moved up their presidential primaries to February, and some even to January, challenging the so-called “first four”: New Hampshire, Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina, who lead the nation in the process of choosing presidential candidates. 

The DFL-controlled state [...]