The Supreme Court turned away a Minnesota Republican candidate’s emergency application to postpone voting in his congressional contest to February 2021, after he argued that state law required the postponement because a major-party candidate died weeks before Election Day.
The unusual state law, Minnesota Statute 204B.13, that requires the election to be delayed was enacted after U.S. Sen. Paul Wellstone, a Democrat, died in a 2002 plane crash 11 days before a scheduled election. Democrats rushed to find a replacement and picked former Vice President Walter Mondale to run in Wellstone’s place. Mondale was defeated by Republican Norm Coleman.
