Donald Trump Could Get Booted Off The Ballot In Minnesota

"It is likely none of the Republican electors were legally elected."
Minnesota Democrats are trying to have Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tossed off the ballot in their state.
Minnesota Democrats are trying to have Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump tossed off the ballot in their state.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Donald Trump could be missing from the ballot in Minnesota on Election Day if Democrats get their way.

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party filed a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court to have the Republican presidential candidate’s name, along with the name of GOP vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, removed from the ballot over a procedural flaw.

The dispute stemmed from provisions requiring that each party nominate 10 electors and 10 alternates at their state conventions who would represent Minnesota in the Electoral College vote held after the presidential election. The GOP failed to select the alternate electors and almost didn’t make the ballot at all.

The state party ultimately held a meeting to select the alternates, as the Washington Post reported last month.

The Republican Party said Minnesota’s secretary of state accepted the alternates as meeting the legal requirements. Now, the DFL claims that since the GOP alternates weren’t selected at a state convention, as required by law, they shouldn’t count.

As a result, the DFL wants Trump booted from the ballot.

“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,” DFL Chair Ken Martin said in a news release.

The state Supreme Court has a track record of handling election issues quickly, Pioneer Press reported. The DFL’s lawsuit was filed on Thursday.

Although the state GOP has not responded to requests for comment on the issue, at least one GOP official admitted there might be a problem.

Based on the wording of the law, “it is likely none of the Republican electors were legally elected,” James Carson, party chair for the fourth congressional district, told MinnPost.

Minnesota hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since Richard M. Nixon in 1972, and was famously the only state to vote for Walter Mondale over Ronald Reagan in 1984.

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