Senate Elections Committee advances bill raising penalties for voter intimidation
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Summary
The committee voted 11-0 to recommend Senate File 3893 — which raises criminal penalties for interfering with or intimidating voters and election officials and increases civil fines to $10,000 — and referred the bill to Judiciary and Public Safety for further review.
The Minnesota Senate Elections Committee on March 5 recommended passage and referral of Senate File 3893, a bill that would increase criminal penalties for voter and election-official intimidation and raise civil penalties to $10,000. The committee recorded 11 ayes and 0 nays on a roll-call recommendation to send the bill to the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee.
The sponsor presented the bill as an effort to protect voters and the roughly 30,000 Minnesotans who serve as election judges. The measure, as described to the committee, upgrades specified offenses from gross misdemeanor to felony and raises statutory civil penalties to $10,000, with the effective date set as the day following enactment.
Nicole Freeman, introduced from the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, told the committee that threats and intimidation directed at local election administrators have increased and that the office supports the bill as a way to protect workers and the integrity of local administration. “We want them to be free from intimidation and their work to be done outside of any interference,” Freeman said.
Henry Anderson, a citizen who said he prepared a presentation for the hearing, expressed full support for the measure and urged the committee to move it forward.
Committee members asked detailed questions about sentencing and proportionality, including whether the bill specifies felony sentencing ranges. The committee chair and members noted that statutory sentencing specifics are typically resolved in judiciary deliberations; one member said the default felony term discussed in the hearing was five years, though that point was deferred to the Judiciary Committee for legal review.
After discussion, Senator Westlund moved that Senate File 3893 be recommended to pass and referred to the committee on Judiciary and Public Safety. Miss Stankiewicz called the role; the committee recorded 11 ayes and 0 nays and recommended the bill be passed and referred. The committee adjourned after the vote.
The bill will be considered next by the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee; committee members indicated they may discuss proportionality of fines and sentencing there.