Court Opinion

ID: 9723598
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:22:36.486928+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:50.332663
License: Public Domain

GILBERT, Justice
(concurring).
I generally agree with the result reached by the majority but join Justice Page in his concurrence, but not his dissent. We should not address issues not properly raised or briefed in a timely fashion and without appropriate citation to authority. The petition filed in this case only addressed errors in the supplemental ballot form and lack of information to those who may want to request a replacement ballot. Those include not having an “oval target” as did the regular ballot; no place for dates or judges’ initials; generally confusing instructions; incorrect and confusing directions to voters who already voted absentee; and erroneous and incomplete directions from the Secretary of State to local election officials and absentee voters. These were the only complaints that were set forth in the petition wherein corrective action was requested. These are the only issues that we should address.
My concern with the petitioners’ request for relief at oral argument relates to then-suggestion to disregard all regular absentee ballots cast for U.S. senate. If we granted such relief, assuming there was proper authority to do so, it would only compound the problem that the petitioners are attempting to address on behalf of the DFL Party. Their proposal, carried out to the extreme, would void numerous properly filled out and filed absentee ballots sent on behalf of the four other nominated candidates, plus any write-in candidates for this office. The end result reached by the majority, based on this tragic accident and the short time frame before Election Day, is fair to the absentee voters who voted for the late Senator Paid Wellstone, without impinging upon the voting rights of those of our citizens who had voted for the other four candidates or chosen to write in the name on the regular absentee ballots.