ST. PAUL — Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon announced Tuesday, April 28, that his office has reached an agreement with the plaintiffs in a voting rights lawsuit that was precipitated by St. Paul City Council member Dai Thao three years ago when he was running for mayor.
In a consent decree in Thao v. Simon filed in Ramsey County District Court, the secretary of state agreed that two provisions of Minnesota election law — one of which prohibits any person from assisting more than three voters in an election — are preempted by the federal Voting Rights Act and are unenforceable. The other invalidated restriction prohibits a candidate for office from assisting a voter.
“My mission in this office is to make it as easy as possible for every eligible Minnesotan to vote,” said Simon, who was represented in the litigation by the state attorney general’s office. “That means making sure that voters have the freedom to choose who helps them in the polling place. I’m pleased that this arbitrary, invalid limitation is no longer part of Minnesota’s elections.”
“The freedom to vote is fundamental to every citizen’s ability to live with dignity and respect,” Attorney General Keith Ellison said in response to the agreement. “Secretary Simon and I … agree with the plaintiffs that the restrictions are invalid and unenforceable. Taking them off the books means that every eligible Minnesotan, regardless of language or ability, now has greater access to the fundamental freedom to vote.”
As a St. Paul mayoral candidate, Thao faced criminal charges in 2017 for assisting an elderly Hmong voter at the polls who needed help seeing and translating her ballot. The charges were later dismissed.
The ACLU sued Simon on behalf of Thao; community organizers Amee Xiong and Nelsie Yang, who is now also a St. Paul City Council member; and Chong Lee, a community member who had needed help voting.
As a state representative, Simon had tried to eliminate the polling place restrictions, but the Legislature didn’t act.
Minnesota and Arkansas were the only two states in the nation that carried such restrictions on the books.
In 2017, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals similarly invalidated a restriction in Texas election law that required interpreters at the polls to be registered to vote in the county in which they were assisting voters. The 5th Circuit held that that restriction was also preempted by the Voting Rights Act.
