Hennepin County elections officials have until Friday to appoint Republican judges to the county's absentee ballot board following a ruling Tuesday from the State Supreme Court.
The ruling comes after Republicans and the Minnesota Voters Alliance filed a petition accusing the county of selecting election judges that weren't included in an official Republican party list.
In their ruling the State Supreme Court wrote Hennepin County did in fact select election judges outside the party list before contacting residents who were on the list, and that the county must reach out to people instead of relying on cities to contact them.
As of last Friday Hennepin County had received more than 214,000 absentee ballots.
State law requires a balance of Republican and Democratic election judges to oversee voting on both Election Day and during the processing of absentee ballots.
Hennepin County officials did confirm Wednesday that they were operating with party balance but will comply with the ruling and email Republicans on the list provided by the party by this Friday.
"I'm not upset, these elections are critical to our democracy and Hennepin County really strives to make sure that we are acting with integrity," Hennepin County Auditor Daniel Rogan told WCCO. "We believed that we were acting in accordance with the statute. The Supreme Court has now told us that there's a different interpretation of that statute and so we're working diligently to comply with it."
Republicans and state party chair David Hann are calling the Supreme Court ruling a “huge win for election integrity in Minnesota.”