(Bloomberg) -- Minnesota's plan to accept mail-in ballots until a week after Election Day survived another Republican challenge when a federal judge ruled that GOP claims of potential fraud don't hold up to evidence -- the rate of voter fraud in the state is just 0.000004% since 1979.
The suit by two Republican presidential electors assumes it's “human nature to commit voter fraud” if given the opportunity, U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel said in a ruling late Sunday denying their request for an injunction against the ballot-counting plan. She also rejected their claim that extending the deadline for ballots postmarked by Nov. 3 will create confusion.
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“In reality, the Electors are in danger of creating confusion,” Brasel, an appointee of President Donald Trump, said in the ruling. And their fears, she said, are “conjectural and hypothetical,” given just two cases of voter fraud out of 45 million ballots cast since 1979.
The ballot-counting plan by Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon survived an earlier court challenge by the Republican National Committee and Trump's campaign. Similar claims of voter fraud stemming from a surge in mail-in ballots have been rejected in numerous courts.
The electors, who sued over Simon's plan on Sept. 22., told Brasel in a filing last week that she should adopt the non-binding reasoning of a federal appeals court that rejected a similar plan for accepting ballots in Wisconsin. In that case, the appeals court said voters could cast their mail-in ballots in time “by planning ahead.”
Andrew Grossman, the lawyer for the electors, declined to comment on the decision. An appeal has already been filed, court records show.
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