Star Tribune
Minnesota election law changes since 2020 aim to boost turnout
Some of the slew of laws passed in the 2023 legislative session are aimed at making it easier for eligible voters to cast ballots, and advocates hope that will mean Minnesota voters, who have voted at some of the highest rates in the country in recent elections, turn out in even higher numbers this year.
With early voting now underway, Minnesota voters will start to see some of these new laws.
Absentee voting has become more prevalent since the pandemic, and new laws expanding early in-person voting are in effect. Voters can still request mail-in absentee ballots for any reason — or no reason at all, under the state’s no-excuse absentee ballot law.
Starting this year, voters can put themselves on a permanent absentee voter list, meaning they will get a ballot mailed to them for every election.
“It can’t be any easier than voting from home,” said Michelle Witte, executive of the nonpartisan League of Women Voters Minnesota.
During a news conference Thursday, Secretary of State Steve Simon suggested that people who plan to vote by mail budget at least a week to return their completed ballots.
“We are seeing some delays nationally with the U.S. Postal Service,” Simon said, and added that he is particularly concerned about the proportion of mail that has lately been marked “undeliverable” when there was not any problem with the address. He wants to make sure people who request absentee ballots get those ballots with enough time to mail them back.
Simon wants to see additional training and resources for the postal service. But, he said, the way the service handled the last presidential election gives him hope.
Attorneys for Kortgard and Pillar Bank did not respond to requests for comment.
In an 11-page complaint filed Sept. 9, after using $7 million of the credit it’s owed to acquire the Lowry Apartments through a foreclosure sale, lender Colliers Funding argued Kortgard is liable for remaining debt associated with the building as a guarantor.
The lawsuit seeks more than $8 million plus interest, late charges, attorney fees and other costs. An attorney for the lender did not respond to requests for comments.
The court appointed a receiver to take over management of the Lowry Apartments last month after tenants complained that the building was unsafe and unsanitary. Other Madison Equities properties have lost major office tenants in recent months, and an attorney for the company warned large buildings could soon be boarded up and left without security.
Madison Equities did not pay the first half of this year’s property taxes on its downtown buildings. The company owes at least $1.7 million in taxes, fees and penalties, and at least $1.6 million more will be due in October.
Crockarell, who died in January, was a controversial figure in downtown St. Paul, engaging in a number of legal battles over decades with the city, other property owners, his tenants and his staff. As he amassed his portfolio, he grew a reputation for buying distressed buildings and offering below-market rents. Kortgard, an attorney, was a business partner.
The state Department of Employment and Economic Development has announced a $440,000 grant to Oak Park Heights that the city plans to begin cleaning city water of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) discovered in two city wells earlier this year.
The grant was one of six Community Energy Transition Grants awarded to communities with power plants that have closed or are scheduled to close due to the state’s conversion to 100% clean electricity by 2040.
The Allen S. King power plant will close in 2028, taking with it about a third of Oak Park Heights’ tax collections. Oak Park Heights Mayor Mary McComber said in a statement that the city will use the grant for a feasibility study and pre-design work to construct a new water treatment facility to remove PFAS contaminants from city water.
“We are grateful for DEED’s partnership and continued support,” McComber said. The six Community Energy Transition Grants announced this week totaled $5.21 million in funding for Oak Park Heights, Monticello, Red Wing, Cook County, Becker, and Sherburne County.
Superfund sites are investigated to determine the nature and extent of pollution. That has happened many times over the years at St. Regis, leading to the removal of some contaminated soil.
Some EPA studies and reports suggested the cleanup was done or nearing completion, but then the band’s own studies contradicted the EPA data. In the early 2000s, researchers with the University of Minnesota found evidence of a worsening situation that the EPA seemed to miss.
“It’s easy for a lot of people to say, ‘Well, they didn’t know any better when they were poisoning the water…when they were poisoning the land, they didn’t know any better.’ But they really did,” said Leo Anderson, who lived on a section of the Superfund site, as did his grandparents.
“One of the earliest memories I have of living on this site was that if you left a glass of water out overnight, in the morning there was an oil on top of it,” Anderson said.
“We had repeated stories of these companies putting freshly treated creosote wood right next to people’s homes,” he said. “They would pile it as close as they could to your home until you moved out and then they would continue working their way through the whole community. So this was not a mistake.”
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