More than 8 months after the November 2020 election, Republicans are still trying to falsely claim that fraudulent activities took place. These accusations are bogus. And, they’re not holding up in court.
On Wednesday the Minnesota Supreme Court struck down Republican Donna Bergstrom’s election contest suit against DFLer Jen McEwen who won the race by a two-to-one margin. Bergstrom lost the race by more than the votes she received.
Chief Justice Lorie Gildea wrote that Bergstrom’s case is “simply too vague to warrant embarking upon the discovery and trial process she seeks.” This decision also determines that the MN Supreme Court won’t order widespread inspection of ballots, lists of eligible voters, and election materials unless evidence can be reasonably argued in court. As Republicans across the country have exaggerated election fraud claims to an extreme degree, this MN Supreme Court ruling draws a line for how far these accusations can go.
Another trend that is still clear: Minnesota Republicans just don’t care about democracy. After the November election, the state Republican Party recruited local party leaders to spread baseless claims of voter fraud and themselves repeated baseless accusations of “voter irregularities”. Reps Emmer, Fischbach, Hagedorn, and Stauber touted false information, refused to recognize President Biden as the President-elect, voted against election certification, asked to join Texas’ Republicans case before the Supreme Court, blamed Democrats for stealing the election, and much more.
It’s embarrassing and upsetting that our elected officials would act in such a way — and as DFL State Senator Melisa Franzen said, “If Republican officials cannot or will not level with their base and set the record straight, they will have sabotaged any chance at actually uniting as a nation.”
For the sake of our democracy, we must be in this fight together to vote Republicans out of office to protect our free and fair election process.