On October 7, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in Paquin v Mack, A10-1177, that petition signatures are invalid if the signer listed a post office box address instead of a street address. Here is the 13-page opinion. The result confirms that an independent candidate for the state legislature, Gregory Wayne Paquin, will not appear on the ballot. His ballot label would have been “Minnesota Warriors for Justice Party.”
The opinion does not mention a contrary opinion from the Arizona Supreme Court in 2008, Jenkins v Hale, 190 P.3d 175. The Arizona Supreme Court had said, “We find it difficult to see how a post office box address renders a signature invalid per se if an elections official can verify that the signer is a qualified elector. In some instances, the election official may even have the post office box address on file.” Both this Minnesota case, and the Arizona case, involved petitions circulated on Indian reservations. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news.
UPDATE: also on October 7, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled against another candidate for the state legislature, who had challenged disqualification of her petition also on the basis that post office box addresses ought to be acceptable. In that decision, Beaulieu v Mack, A10-1389, the Minnesota Supreme Court did mention the Arizona precedent. But the Minnesota Supreme Court said the Arizona law is different than Minnesota’s law, because in Arizona, the circulator affirms that each signature he or she gathered is valid.
How do governments and even junk mail folks send snail mail to folks ???
How many MORON judges are there now in the U.S.A. and State courts ???
More of the growing INSANITY in the govt regimes ???
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LEGAL or ILLEGAL signing of petitions — same with voting — LEGAL or ILLEGAL votes.
How much INSANE stuff can there be in the U.S.A. — before there is a TOTAL wipeout ??
If a person has a Post Office box listed as a secondary address on their voter registration form, then there is no reason why it can’t count as an address on a petition.
A rather odd decision. I can think of several reasons why an eligible voter might not want their physical address (when a valid post office box is good enough) on a petition — which could easily become a subject of public scrutiny.
Of coarse the really painful aspect of candidate petitioning in Minnesota is the very narrow of time allowed to circulate the petition, which seems to be during the summer time when most folks (and students) are away on vacation and really do not want to be pestered.
How many folks are NOT in numbered street address areas — especially in the western States — having square miles of vacant land ???