Minnesota

Secretary of State proposes exempting presidential primary lists from Minnesota’s public disclosure laws, Minnpost, January 4, 2019

Under a state law adopted in 2016 — and unlike in every other primary the state holds — registered voters will have to tell election officials which party they belong to, at least for the day of the presidential primary. Which of the candidates from that party a voter chooses will remain secret; which party you designated will not.

As the law is currently written, that information be available to anyone who asks. And people will ask because such a list of party preferences is valuable to political parties, candidates, political action committees and even to non-partisan opinion pollsters who rely on party registration and preference data to test the accuracy of their sampling.

This unusual set of primary rules — at least for Minnesota, which doesn’t require voters to register by party or as independent — comes courtesy of the state and national political parties, which insist on such disclosures. They say it is meant to prevent mischief makers from crossing over to impact the other party’s process as well as to build the party’s strength. (Whether such mischief-making actually occurs — or if it does, in quantities that make any difference — is unverified. The parties, however, think it does.)

Simon’s solution to address any voter concerns about revealing party preference is to make the those voter lists exempt from disclosure under the state Data Practices Act. But then, to satisfy the demands of the parties, he will also give each of them their lists. That would also apply to the two marijuana legalization parties — if they choose to take part — since they gained major party status as a result of winning at least 5 percent of the vote in the most recent statewide election.