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By Clay Masters, Ellie Roth, Cathy Wurzer and Gretchen Brown, Minnesota Public Radio News

Minnesota Republicans and the conservative Minnesota Voters Alliance scored a pre-election court victory that will require the state’s most-populous county to redo its makeup of a panel overseeing absentee ballots.

In a ruling Tuesday, the Minnesota Supreme Court sided with the groups in a lawsuit over election judges appointed to an absentee ballot board in Hennepin County. Those entities argued that Hennepin County failed to exhaust a list of Republican-preferred election judges when filling out its ballot board.

Justices gave the county until Friday to come into compliance. The court ordered the county to redo its election judge selections in a fashion that first goes through the lists provided by the GOP even if it means taking extra steps to contact the potential judges.

“To exhaust the party lists for a county absentee ballot board, a county must first attempt to appoint all potential election judges on the party lists who reside within the county. But respondents appointed election judges to the Hennepin County Absentee Ballot Board from outside the party lists without first contacting Hennepin County residents on the lists,” Chief Justice Natalie Hudson wrote in the court’s order.

Absentee ballot boards in Minnesota examine envelopes for proper signatures and take other steps to review ballots prior to them being counted.

“We had believed that we were doing what we were supposed to do according to the law,” Hennepin County elections director Ginny Gelms said Wednesday.

“My interpretation of the statute and how it applied to the absentee ballot board was different,” Gelms said. “We respect the Supreme Court, and we’re going to do what they told us to do.”

She said the election judges don’t review all absentee ballots, but are called upon when there are discrepancies around signatures or validating voter information. Gelms estimated that about 50 ballots a week get extra scrutiny; more than 200,000 have been cast in the county already, she said.

By law, boards must have party balance. The court’s ruling didn’t draw any conclusion that Hennepin County was out of compliance on that matter, only taking issue with the process for selecting judges off the party lists.

In reacting to the ruling, Minnesota Republican Party Chair David Hann said all counties should be on notice that the makeup of the ballot boards matter.

“This is a huge win for election integrity in Minnesota,” Hann said in a written statement. “Minnesotans expect those administering our elections to comply with election law.”

Hennepin County Auditor Dan Rogan said the ruling was on narrow grounds.

“This year, Hennepin County cities exhausted the list and needed to recruit thousands of additional election judges who are not on the major political party list,” Rogan said in a written statement. “Based on the Supreme Court’s order, the county cannot rely on exhaustion by its cities but must contact residents on the major political party list directly. Hennepin County will send an email to individuals on the major political party list tomorrow to recruit election judges for the county absentee ballot board.”

Hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots have been requested ahead of the election and Hennepin County, by virtue of its sizable population, is where the largest number of those ballots will be cast.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5.