Secretary of State: Law is clear on what Biden’s exit means for Minnesota ballots

Secretary of State Steve Simon is responsible for ensuring that Minnesota has a smooth and fair election this fall. With President Joe Biden exiting the race just a month before the Democratic National Convention, one name on the ballot is now uncertain. How will that affect our ballots?

Simon, who is also one of Minnesota’s 93 delegates, spoke to All Things Considered guest host Emily Bright about the upcoming election and nomination process.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity. Click on the audio player above to hear the full interview.

What is your reaction to President Biden’s decision not to run for election?

Well, I’m focused on that news within what we do with the office of Secretary of State. We’re looking at 100-plus days from now in the election and how this is going to frame that. Will people have the correct information? I can tell you in the last 24 hours, there’s been some confusion about what this means in terms of valid access, do laws need to be changed? I just want to make sure people have a clearer picture and the full story about what it does mean in terms of the law.

This has been a chaotic year already with the uncommitted campaign winning an unexpected 18 percent of votes and 70 percent of voters in Minnesota’s Democratic primary cast ballots for Biden. Do you expect any legal challenges in terms of what names actually get printed on our ballots?

No, and I don’t, because in Minnesota, the law is quite clear. It’s very clear. And the key date to keep focused on is Aug. 26.

Aug. 26 is the date fixed in Minnesota law and has been fixed that way for a long time. That’s the deadline by which the major political parties have to get word to us in our office about who their nominees are for president and vice president. As long as they do that, it doesn’t matter what the reason is, whether it’s that someone stepped away from political contests like President Biden did, whether it’s a health issue or a death or any other reason.

As long as the names of the nominees are in by Aug. 26, those nominees will get ballot access. The law is quite clear about that, so I don’t really expect any sort of legal challenge to that. I’m scratching my head trying to think what it would be because the law is really that clear.

Anything else we should know, as far as what Minnesota’s election law says about how the nomination process should go?

No, that’s really the key thing for the major political parties. That’s the date that they’re focused on. Now, some of your listeners may know that in other states with similar laws, there have been some issues this year.

Ohio is a prominent member of that group, where their date was in earlier August and there was some question as to whether the Democratic Party even with President Biden running for re-election would be in trouble there because the convention wouldn’t have happened until after that Ohio date. But my understanding is that they’ve resolved that issue in Ohio, they made some sort of modifications to the law. And so now, it’s understood that the Democratic nominee, whoever that is, will get valid access, even though the Democratic party’s convention will fall after early August. 

But Minnesota is not like that. I just want to emphasize to your listeners, while there were other states like Ohio that did have that controversy, we have not had that controversy, because our date is very clear. And it’s well within the time that both parties will have concluded their business and named their nominees.

It seems like the Democratic Party thus far is rallying around Vice President Kamala Harris. What are you bracing for if someone challenges the nomination?

Well, I really leave that to the political parties. We’re here to receive their designated nominees for president and vice president. What happens between now and then — that’s really up to them. As long as there aren’t competing definitions or determinations of who the nominee is, as long as it’s clear who that person or who those people are. What happens between now and Aug. 26, the sort of backroom conversations and the machinations and all the rest: I’m going to leave that to the political parties.

Well, I understand you won’t endorse a candidate due to your position, but you will have a vote at next month’s convention as a delegate. Are you going to sit out the vote?

What’s interesting is that I got this status. It’s not something I sought. It’s not something I wanted. It’s not something I chased. It’s just by virtue of my position I’m given this superdelegate status. But what’s interesting is superdelegates, as I understand it, are only entitled to vote on a second ballot, not on a first ballot.

And so because of that, it’s probably going to be, it may be moot by then. I haven’t even made and arrangements to attend. I don’t even know whether or to what extent I’ll be attending at all, so I guess I need to think that through but it’s a status that I didn’t seek and or ask for but was conferred on me.

Looking ahead, early voting starts Sept. 20, which is less than a month after the DNC ends, will your office have enough time?

Enough time in terms of balance and order? Oh, yes, absolutely. That's why the Legislature fixed that date. And we have advised the Legislature on those issues. That gives us enough time to get the ballots ready. This is a function that is performed at the county level, so we're not physically doing anything in our office, but we're coordinating that activity among the counties. And that is enough time for them to get the ballots in order to make sure they're formatted correctly in a way that the law says they have to be in time for that first day of voting on Sept. 20.

I know Minneapolis and Burnsville will be doing accuracy testing on their election equipment within the next week. How is your office working to ensure November elections will be secure?

I’m so glad you highlighted that exact process. We have something in law called the public accuracy test. Every jurisdiction in Minnesota — city, township, county, you name it, that uses elections equipment of any kind — they must trot out that equipment within some number of days or weeks before every election — a primary election, a general election, you name it. They have to trot it out in a pre-noticed public meeting so that anyone off the street can walk in with advance notice and watch elections administrators basically kick the tires of the elections equipment. And I would say even try to trick it. That will do things like over-voting and under-voting and putting stray marks and putting marks where there shouldn’t be marks and all the rest to see if the machines will pick up on that. And obviously, to make sure that mathematically, everything is not just precise but perfect, mathematically perfect. Then, and only then is it allowed for use in the upcoming election.

This is one of those guarantees of trustworthiness that ought to inspire a lot of confidence — and does in Minnesota — in terms of the election system. There’s always this pre-testing of elections equipment. So what you just described is happening in advance of the August primary will happen again, in hundreds and hundreds of places across Minnesota in advance of the general election. It happens again before every election.

I have over the last several election cycles gone out to some select number of public accuracy test procedures and I brought TV cameras and radio microphones and others from the media just to highlight and let people know this is a thing so that the next time they encounter something in their social media feed, alleging bad things about elections equipment, they’ll know that in Minnesota, we’ve thought about that, and that we have processes in place that ought to give people a ton of confidence in that equipmen — and that it’s available for people to come watch.

Does a late switcheroo like this complicate your efforts to instill confidence in the election process?

I don’t think so. That’s not the vibe I’m getting. And I don’t feel any extra pressure in that way. We are answering a lot of questions today from people about what happens. But no, this is an election just like every other. The rules are the same. Nothing has changed. Nothing has been altered, the deadlines are fixed in the law. And all the parties are going to meet that deadline.

It’s just maybe someone who’s expected a certain name isn’t going to see that name because President Biden has decided he’s not running for reelection. But other than that, in terms of the nuts and bolts, the idea that Minnesota’s election system is fair and accurate and honest — that has not changed.

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