In signing a massive military spending bill Wednesday, President Obama made it more likely Minnesotans will go to the polls in the heat of summer.
Tucked into the $680 billion defense measure is a provision that would require states to give overseas voters, many of whom are members of the military, at least 45 days to receive and mail back their general election ballots next year.
Backers have said the move will give voters enough time to deal with vagaries of overseas mail. In last year's election, about 11,400 Minnesota voters cast ballots from overseas in the general election and about 4 percent of those came back too late to be counted, according to the Minnesota Secretary of State's office.
But Minnesota's current election schedule, with a primary in September, would make it nearly impossible for the state to comply with the new law.
Moving the state's primary up a month, to August, would solve that problem and has gained support from Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and Gov. Tim Pawlenty.
The defense measure signed Wednesday also included U.S. Sen. Al Franken's very first piece of legislation -- to start a $5 million pilot project to provide service dogs to disabled military veterans and study the results.
RACHEL E. STASSEN-BERGER
