Oak Grove petitions MN Supreme Court to allow paper voter rosters in 2026 election

OAK GROVE, Minn. (FOX 9) - Election administrators with the City of Oak Grove announced a petition asking the Minnesota Supreme Court to allow paper voter rosters in the 2026 election, which they say would overrule Anoka County's decision to block them from doing so. 

Voter rosters are used by election administrators to see who is registered to vote and if someone has already voted. 

Oak Grove paper voter roster petition

What they're saying:

City of Oak Grove leaders, along with representatives from the nonprofit firm Upper Midwest Law Center, announced the petition on Thursday morning.

They say they are asking the Minnesota Supreme Court to overrule Anoka County and the Minnesota Secretary of State to allow them to use paper voting rosters in the 2026 general election. 

During the news conference, Nicholas Nelson from the Upper Midwest Law Center said, "The City of Oak Grove, Minnesota, has been using electronic voter rosters, but recently the city council took a second look and said, ‘You know what? All things considered, we think paper voter rosters are better for our city.’ So, the Oak Grove City Council passed a resolution on this, and they sent the notice to the Secretary of State that the law requires saying, 'We're going to use paper voter rosters.' But the Secretary of State and Anoka County will not cooperate. They know that Oak Grove is running its own polling place, is hiring its own poll workers, as the law requires, but they claim that Anoka County can order Oak Grove's own employees about what kind of voter roll equipment they have to use and how they have to use it. That doesn't make sense."

Oak Grove Mayor Weston Rolf shared the following statement: "Oak Grove is not asking for special treatment. "We are asking state and county officials to respect the authority the law already gives cities. Our community made a decision to use paper rosters in our precincts, and local election administration should not be overridden by officials outside City Hall."

City officials say they hope to use paper voter rosters because of cost, security and reliability. 

Nelson added that other jurisdictions in Minnesota use paper voting rosters without any issues or state law violations. 

What's next:

For the upcoming primary, Oak Grove will accept electronic rosters due to timing, but believes the county and Secretary of State's actions are unlawful for both the primary and general elections.

The hope is that the Minnesota Supreme Court will reach a decision this summer, before the general election in November. 

Dig deeper:

The full petition can be read below. 

Minnesota Secretary of State response 

Local perspective:

The Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State shared the following response:

"It is our office's position that state law permits counties to choose what is right for their residents when administering a statewide election. Our office doesn’t advocate one way or another on the adoption of electronic rosters."

Anoka County response

The other side:

FOX 9 has reached out to Anoka County for a response and will update this story with their reply.