The Elections Division requests $1.3 million in American Rescue Plan funding to support a county-wide voter registration campaign, an absentee voting education campaign, and the purchase of an additional high-speed absentee ballot scanner.

The goal of this voter registration campaign is to register individuals who are not currently registered to vote, targeting efforts to those areas across the county with the widest gaps between eligible voters and registered voters. The campaign would also target those populations with higher barriers to voter registration, such as those who have never been registered, renters, people experiencing homelessness, seniors, and veterans. This campaign would support the county’s continuing efforts in disparity reduction, as frequently there is disparity in voter registration rates for communities of color. Notably, because state and federal court rules provide that the county voter registration list serves as a jury source list, increasing the diversity of the county voter registration list may also result in a more diverse Hennepin County District Court  and Federal District Court jury pool. This campaign would also support civic engagement among county residents, as studies show that individuals who are registered to vote are more likely to vote.

The goal of the absentee voting education campaign is to educate voters on the current rules concerning absentee voting. Rules governing absentee voting changed in 2020 on an emergency basis in response to the pandemic but have since reverted to earlier rules. Most Hennepin County voters participated in the 2020 elections via absentee voting and may be unaware that the changes to the rules in place for 2020 elections are no longer in effect. Additional education regarding voter registration requirements and absentee voting procedures are needed because of these changes due to the pandemic. Preliminary data from special elections that occurred in the county during the first quarter of 2021 indicate that many voters may not understand that requirements have changed. Several cities and school districts in Hennepin County are conducting regular local elections in the fall, including Bloomington, Golden Valley, Hopkins, Independence, Minneapolis, Minnetonka, St. Anthony, and St. Louis Park, as well as at least 11 different school districts. This campaign would target those areas of the county for 2021 and broaden in 2022 into a countywide campaign. Furthermore, this funding would enable the purchase of an additional high-speed absentee ballot scanner to increase Hennepin County’s capacity to handle a likely permanent elevation in post-pandemic absentee voting activity.

These campaigns would build on the successful absentee voter outreach campaign that was conducted in 2020 using CARES Act funding. Tactics piloted in that campaign can be updated and used again in the 2021 and 2022 campaigns. These include three primary tactics of community partner grants, earned and social media campaigns, and mailings. Other supportive tactics could include phone-banking, paid advertising, and door-knocking. This campaign could also fund the use of kiosks that would offer access to the online voter registration portal and the online absentee ballot request portal.

The elections division anticipates allocating approximately $1,000,000 of the funding to a combination of outreach tactics including partner grants, media campaigns, mailings, advertising, and direct outreach. The anticipated allocation to voter registration kiosk technology is $200,000. The remaining $100,000 of the funding would be allocated to the purchase of an additional high-speed absentee ballot scanner.

Investing in pre-registering voters prior to election day and in ensuring absentee voters do not make mistakes on their absentee voting materials is cost effective for the county. Processing voter registrations prior to election day saves in time and materials as compared to processing election day registrations and reduces wait times in polling places. Helping absentee voters complete their paperwork correctly the first time saves time and materials costs in avoiding the necessity of issuing replacement materials to correct mistakes. Furthermore, increasing pre-registration rates helps increase elections integrity by minimizing the number of outdated voter records. Early voting for local elections in Hennepin County for the 2021 election cycle begins in under two months.

As additional background, on March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was signed into law, including the appropriation of more than $130 billion to the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, for making payments to metropolitan cities, counties, and other units of local government to mitigate the fiscal effects stemming from the public health emergency. Hennepin County expects to receive direct payments from the U.S. Treasury totaling more than $220 million, and received the first-half payment of $122.9 million in May of 2021.

The American Rescue Plan Act provides that money from the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund may only be used to cover certain costs incurred between March 3, 2021, and December 31, 2024, including costs to respond to the public health emergency with respect to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID–19) or its negative economic impacts. Under the available Treasury guidance, this category of eligible costs can include “providing government services” to the extent of a reduction in the recipient’s general revenue due to the pandemic. The County may “use payments from the Fiscal Recovery Funds to avoid cuts to government services and, thus, enable [the County] to continue to provide valuable services.”