Minneapolis DFL knocks out delegates in council race; allegations raised in another

The Minneapolis DFL Party disqualified hundreds of delegates in a city council race, fearing their identities could not be verified.

Meanwhile, a candidate in another council race is raising similar allegations, drawing attention to the party’s endorsement process, which is largely virtual this year.

What is at stake in both races is the official endorsement of the Democratic-Farmers-Labour Party in a municipal electorate dominated by it. Both controversies arose during one stage of this approval process: candidates gathering delegates to vote for them at neighborhood conventions that play a crucial role in the hoped-for approval.

Fifth Ward Delegates Are Cast

On Monday night, the Minneapolis DFL executive committee decided to refuse to accept 358 delegates for Victor Martinez, who is challenging council member Jeremiah Ellison in the Fifth Ward.

This is a substantial number; Martinez’s total delegate count was either 514 (the number the party said it submitted) or 468 (the number Martinez maintains is accurate after removing duplicate records). Ellison amassed 137 delegates. Forty-two additional delegates are undecided.

The names, addresses and contact details of Martinez’s delegates were entered digitally by Martinez or his campaign officials, according to Martinez and the party. This is allowed, but party officials said when this is done they need the original paper form, completed by the delegate, which includes their signature.

When the party asked Martinez about this, he told them he didn’t have the original paper forms because he had thrown them away.

It was not good, party officials concluded.

“To maintain the integrity of the process, we must run all campaigns to the same standards and not give special treatment to any one candidate or their delegates,” Minneapolis party chair Briana Rose Lee said Tuesday. The committee’s action was first reported by the Minnesota Reformer.

Martinez said he didn’t understand that the original paper forms were necessary.

Why did he throw them away?

“I don’t know,” he said Tuesday. “I didn’t think about it at all. … It was a stupid mistake – one I’ll never make again.”

Martinez maintained that each unauthorized delegate is a real person who lives in their neighborhood and signed up to be a delegate for them.

He said the party’s action would disenfranchise its supporters, some of whom are immigrants and not eligible to vote – but who are eligible to serve as delegates under the permissive rules and inclusive philosophy of the party. DFL.

He said he planned to appeal Monday’s decision, a move that could involve the state party, which generally prefers to stay out of local controversies.

Ellison said he supports what happened on Monday. “I think I trust the party to make sure this process is fair.”

Both Ellison and Martinez said they might favor a solution the party is considering: making the May Quarter convention an in-person event.

Virtual Convention

At the heart of the Fifth Ward controversy — and one in the Sixth Ward — is the Minneapolis DFL’s decision to allow virtual conventions.

Instead of gathering in person, voting at conventions can be done entirely by email: the email account provided by a delegate receives a code, and then a response from that email account submits the code along with the delegate’s vote.

In 2021, the code was sent via the US Postal Service to the delegate’s address, but some delegates found the process confusing. The party allowed for an all-digital process this year.

Sixth Ward Allegations

In the sixth ward, candidate Kayseh Magan accuses opponent Tiger Worku of abusing his number of delegates by inventing email addresses for delegates that someone else can use to vote for them.

Worku denies any wrongdoing.

Magan said what caught his eye was that more than 180 of Worku’s delegates were using addresses with Protonmail, which is easier to set up than more well-known providers because it requires little verification. Magan, a former investigator with the Minnesota attorney general’s office, said he contacted at least “two dozen” such delegates, and all of them told him they weren’t using Protonmail.

Magan said he plans to officially challenge many Worku delegates soon.

In an interview Tuesday, Worku acknowledged that his campaign had set up the email accounts. He said many of those delegates are older immigrants who don’t use email or have smartphones. He said the plan for the convention was to host many delegates in person at his campaign office, using campaign computers to log in and vote via email.

“Everything is according to the book,” he said.

Outgoing Sixth Ward Council member Jamal Osman is running for re-election.

The party does not have to endorse a candidate in a race.