Minnesota Presidential Electors, 2024
Yes, we do this every cycle.
When you vote for a presidential candidate, you are not actually casting a vote for that candidate. You are voting for a slate of presidential electors who (at least officially) support that candidate. Months before the presidential election, each presidential candidate registers his or her slate of electors with the state. If “Kamala D. Harris” is marked on more Minnesota ballots than “Donald J. Trump,” it doesn’t technically contribute to Harris’s election as President; all it means is that the slate of Harris’s electors has won their election. They will be certified by the Secretary of State and the Governor (some time between mid-November and December 11th) and they will get to serve as Minnesota’s presidential electors.
The winning electors meet at the state capitol on December 17th, 2024, and they vote for President and Vice-President of the United States. The Constitution itself doesn’t care how they vote at this point. If one of the Harris electors shows up and votes for Josh Shapiro instead, the Constitution doesn’t mind. The Constitution imagined that state chapters of the electoral college would function as independent deliberative bodies, and that each elector would come into the electoral college with an open mind. However, the Founders’ plan failed immediately and catastrophically, for reasons De Civitate explored at fascinating length earlier this year:
This Is No Way To Elect A President
The Founders wanted democracy, yes, but democracy as Aristotle had it: moderated through republican institutions under a republican constitution, like a stable nuclear reaction moderated by control rods. Without the control rods, you get Chernobyl.
We’ve been living under a jury-rigged electoral system held together by good luck and chicken wire ever since. Some thirty-eight states, including my own Minnesota, have now passed laws to guarantee that the electors are mere functionaries, literally incapable of doing anything other than what the popular mob demands. Some states impose fines or criminal penalties on so-called “faithless” electors, and all of them deliberately do a great deal (like giving candidates direct control over their selection) to ensure that electors obey the mob. In 2020, the Supreme Court upheld these frustrating laws (and they were correct to do so), because, although these laws clearly violate the spirit of the Constitution, they do comply with its letter. As a result, our presidential electors are essentially functionaries, legally barred from casting a free vote (mostly) and too hollowed out by partisan loyalty to do so if they could.
The electors then send their votes off to Congress to be opened and counted. In the 2020 version of this post, I had to explain at this point what “January 6” was, but, ha ha, one good thing about the 2020 election is that now every American knows about January 6! Big win for civics!
Even though the system does everything it can to make the electors pointless, it still seems weird that most Americans have no clue who their electors are. These are the people you’re actually voting for, technically! You should know them! There’s even a possibility—though a very faint one—that their judgment will matter tremendously: if a president-elect dies before the electoral college votes, many states free their electors from their pledge.1 This would place the onus back on the electors to decide on a new president-elect.2
So let’s get to know them, eh?
Every four years, the week before Election Day, I write to the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office to ask for the list of electors—which, historically, they don’t even publish.3 Every four years, the inestimable Stella Hegg replies to my inquiry within hours, which I can’t imagine how she does it given everything that must be going on at the MNSoS office this week, but I thank her very much for it.4
Then, I post the lists on this here blogletter. Here’s De Civitate’s list of 2016 electors. Here’s our list of 2020 electors. And here’s our list of 2024 electors:
Democratic-Farmer-Labor Electors (Harris)
Alternates:
David Hansen
Gregory Davis
Steven Cwodzinski
Richard Ottman
Georgianna Yantos
Tamara Polzin
Laurie Driessen
Christian Taylor-Johnson
Jeffrey Strand
Kathleen Oganovic
Republican Electors (Trump)
Alternates:
Greg Bartz
Natalie Barnes
Josh Coburn
John Rheinberger
Mitchell Rossow
Sam Adeji
Jim Bobier
Charlene Gafkjen
Brien Martin
Thomas G. Polachek
…and, no, I don’t know why the major parties didn’t submit their elector names in alphabetical order this cycle. Pretty sure they did last cycle, because I’ll never forget the first name on the 2020 DFL list: the clearly alphabetical Melvin Aanerud. (Remember, kids, Melvin Aanerud did nothing wrong!8)
Looking through these names and their limited biographies, they are an interesting mix of people, aren’t they? One does wonder what they might do if allowed to deliberate about the best candidate and vote their consciences. Alas.
I’m not linking biographies for the minor parties, though.
Libertarian Electors (Chase Oliver)
Rebecca Whiting
George "Chip" Tangen
Joey Gamache
Harrison Hicks
T. J. Hawthorne
Tobias Leonard
Ahmed AlRwazek
Mary O'Connor
Jake Dahle
Brian Paulson
Alternates:
Eric Thraen
Charles Kuchlenz
Anita Marie Hansen
Robert “Bob” Odden
Jason Klietz
Rhea Schmitt
William Sorenson
Dan Garscia
Jeremy Peichel
James Arthur Hansen
Green Party Electors (Jill Stein)
Undrea Patterson
Wissam Balshe
Danene Provencher
Scott Bol
Samantha Pree-Stinson
Megan Kuhl-Stennes
Dave Bicking
Katharine Pitney
Adam Schneider
Carol Mellom
Alternates:
Seth Kuhl-Stennes
Timothy Jordan
Cameron Gordon
Ralph Overholt
Thomas Dunnwald
David Strand
Devin Kasprowicz
Victoria López
Diane Peterson
Eric Oines
We the People Electors (RFK, Jr.)
Yep, he’s still on the ballot!
Mark Blaxill
Sarah Bridges
Patricia Carroll
Drew Dietle
Mark Frascone
Jeanne Hamm
Jennifer Vanderhorst-Larson
Peter Nickitas
Wayne Rohde
Victor Toso
Alternates:
Cody Abel
Robert Carter
Diana Clarke-Carter
Lizbeth Getman
Michelle Heerey
Logan Kammerer
Beth Kessler
Virginia Ryan
Lori Schneiderhan
Kari Wenger
Socialism and Liberation Electors (Claudia de La Cruz)
Riecher Denmark
John Reuss
Madeline Hermann
Nathan Riddle
James Elli
Jasmine Warren
Samuel Reichert
Simon Elliott
Kade Robb
Carolyn Hockey
Alternates:
Melanie Denmark
William Norton
James Dugan
Elizabeth Bushard
Eric Rodgers
Jayde Warren
Elizabeth Kramm
Naomi Li
Michael Reuss
Samantha Asplund
Socialist Workers Party (Rachele Fruit)
I always imagine that the Socialist Workers Party and the Socialism & Liberation Party are locked in some kind of People’s Front of Judea / Judean People’s Front death struggle.
Edwin Fruit
Gabrielle Prosser
Helen Meyers
Joanne Murphy
Kevin Dwire
Rose Engstrom
Martin Knaeble
Jennifer Benton
Kathleen Wheeler
Jeri Mullan
Alternates:
Michael Neterval
Natalie Morrison
Emory Dietrich
Douglas Nelson
Mary Martin
Paul Pederson
David Lee
Kyle Edwards
August Nimtz
John Severs
Justice For All Electors (Cornel West)
This is Robert George’s progressive friend’s political campaign. I guess many people know Cornel West in his own right, but, I confess, I only think of him as “Robert George’s friend.” I guess that shows that, try as I might, I do have a bubble!
Jason Keppe
Lennon Baker
Matthew Thiede
Kirubele Adbebe
Diane Haugesag
Ray J. Garner, Sr.
Russell Brown
Austin Heald
Nick Shillingford
Avery Wikstrom
Alternates:
Ryan West
Dylan Schofield
Josh Godar
Jessica Lee
Paul Sojos
Eric Oines
Zach Czaia
John Vickrey
Jordan Powell Karis
Kevan Bohan
“Independent” Electors (Shiva Ayyadurai)
Okay, you got me. I’ve heard of all the other candidates, or at least their parties in Rachele’s Fruit’s case… but I have no clue who this Shiva guy is or what his deal is. It goes to show just how microscopically insignificant my American Solidarity Party is when even these guys—whoever they are—can hit the threshold to get on the ballot, while the ASP cannot.
A quick Google search reveals that Shiva Ayyadurai is not even eligible to the office of the presidency, because he is not a natural-born citizen! (He was born in India.) However, since nobody challenged him in Minnesota, he made it to the ballot anyway. Indeed, under the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Trump v. Anderson, it is unclear that Minnesota has the right to exclude Ayyadurai from the ballot anyway. What an imbecilic unanimous ruling that was.
But I digress. Here are his electors, all of whom, in my view, violated the Constitution by legally pledging their votes to an ineligible candidate:
Jeremiah Thomas Kornder
Hunter James Day
Colette Carla Backstrand
Kurt Alan Indermaur
Quinn Michael Day
Gerald Arnold Bischoff
Debrah Kay Bischoff
Margaret Mary Fawcett
Timothy G Cameron
Richard Arthur Voigt
Alternates:
Emily Megan Deitering
Maria Sandra Day
Laura Faye Wang
Linda Marie Matthews
Cassandra Lee Studanski
Robert Henry Zollner
Shari Marie Sell
Alainna Frances Kaplan
April Mae Williams
Aaron Maurice Graves
American Solidarity Electors (Peter Sonski)
As I’ve previously disclosed, this “Christian Democracy” party is the ticket I’m voting for this year… for the third presidential election in a row. Shameless plug: you can check their candidate out at PeterSonski.com. Is he perfect? Far from it. Does he have enough experience in public life to be President? Of course not. (Although Sonski has more political experience than Trump did in 2016!) Can I vote for him without betraying myself, my country, or my God? Yep. That will have to be enough.
Because this is a write-in campaign (Sonski is not on the ballot), Minnesota law does not require Sonski to have a full slate of 10 electors and 10 alternates. Sonski only needs 1 elector to qualify for a write-in campaign.9 That’s good news for the ASP, because I have direct knowledge that the ASP tried to get a full slate in Minnesota, but failed.
I was understandably very curious which single elector the party would choose for the honor of being our token single write-in elector—my money was on my friend Mike—but that isn’t the route they picked. The Secretary of State informs me that here is the official list the ASP submitted:
Angela Harder
Amy Sue Anderson
James Heaney
Martha Heaney
Stephen Heaney
Anne Heaney
Yes, that’s me and three of my family members. (My friend Mike’s pledge to serve as an elector must have gotten lost in the mail, I guess!) I did sign a pledge when ASP was pushing for a full slate, but I figured nothing would come of it once the full slate failed.
You can tell it’s a messy party because I resigned rather publicly from the ASP seven years ago, yet here I am, recruiting two-thirds of our electors. The party did very kindly send me a magnet for my assistance, and it’s a decent magnet. Holds a few sheets. Better than most fridge magnets these days.
Anyway, that’s all! It’s possible there are other write-in candidates who have other electors that I did not list here, because I did not ask. Quite frankly, after putting Stella and Paul to this much work, I don’t want to bother either of them again for another four years.
Back in 2028?
I started doing this every four years partly as an excuse to rant about the electoral college, but mainly because the information seemed important to me, yet it wasn’t public.
This year, I am happy to report, the Secretary of State has started publishing the presidential elector lists for the Republican and Democratic Parties online! They’re in an obscure corner of the website no human would ever find,10 but they’re there, technically. The published documents even include a lot of cool bonuses, like the actual signed pledges each elector had to make, and the signed documents from the candidates themselves accepting the nomination and stating how their names should be printed on the ballot! Here they are:
Presidential and Vice-Presidential Certificate of Nomination (DFL)
Presidential and Vice-Presidential Certificate of Nomination (GOP)
So, will I still need to carry on this idiosyncratic tradition again in 2028? I dunno! We’ll see!11
Minnesota does not free its electors from their pledge, even if the pledged candidate dies. At least, I couldn’t find anything… and I spent a lot of time worrying about this sort of thing about a year ago, so I’d probably remember if there was anything.
Minnesota law simply demands that the electors “execute their pledge,” which seems to me to be an impossible demand if the pledged candidate is dead. A conscientious secretary of state might be trapped in a doom loop, voiding all electoral votes cast, replacing electors one after another, by the hundreds and the thousands, until the state legislature finally met to fix this apparent oversight in Minnesota law.
Because of the elector-coordination problem discussed at length in “This Is No Way To Elect a President,” electors in that situation would likely take direction from their national party. However, they would, presumably, have some say in what the national party directs—especially since nothing necessarily compels them to follow the instructions of their national party!
They changed that practice this year, as I’ll discuss at the end of the article.
This year, I am told, I must thank “Paul” (no last name given) from the “Elections Department” for compiling the minor-party lists for me. Thanks, Paul!
I remind you that Minnesota doesn’t have a “Democratic Party of Minnesota,” technically. Our state Democratic Party apparatus is actually the result of a 1944 merger between the Democratic Party of Minnesota and the Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota, which was growing powerful at the time. Personally, I think the entire country should do this, because we Minnesotans have convenient three-letter acronyms for both major parties: GOP and DFL. The rest of you have to struggle with GOP and… “DEM”? It’s stupid. Ours is good. Rename the national Democratic Party!
Ballotpedia says it couldn’t determine to whom Ditto was bound at the 2016 RNC, which is fair. I don’t have Ditto listed in my old 2016 Delegate Loyalty Tracker (remember that?!). As one of the unknown District 2 delegates, he could have been bound to Cruz, Rubio, or Trump. However, delegate bindings had little to do with delegate loyalty that year, and nearly the entire Minnesota delegation in 2016 was anti-Trump during the primary.
Ha ha, Wenzel is in my old 2016 Delegate Loyalty Tracker! He’s a former DFL state legislator of 30 years who did everything in his power to stop Trump in 2016. Good for him. I suppose that, if he still has any power in the party, he’s probably ashamed of that episode now and tries to suppress it, but oh well he did good that time.
If De Civitate ever opens a swag store, that’s going to be on one of our shirts.
I recently found out that the real-life Melvin Aanerud is a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend. When I cryptically said, “Melvin Aanerud did nothing wrong” in the context of an argument about the 2020 election, my friend became extremely confused about my relationship to “Mel.”
Under Minnesota law, in the impossible event that the write-in actually wins, that single elector gets to choose the other 9 electors, under the Secretary of State’s supervision. Although even that isn’t quite accurate; it’s actually wicked complicated how the empty write-in electoral slate bootstraps itself under Minnesota law.
Go to “Search for Official Documents,” set Type to “Election,” use dates in 2024, search “presidential” in the description, and then scroll results until you find the “Certificates of Nomination,” which include the electors.
It might depend on whether the inestimable Stella Hegg retires!
Ha! So many Heaney's present :D Doesn't your family have a past history as Deligates in bygone elections?
Your footnote (1) makes me wonder - is there actually any requirement that electors vote for a living person? Could they "execute their pledge" by simply voting for the dead person? This was a very real prospect in the 1790's, when it would've taken a substantial time for news of someone's death to reach far-off state capitals. I can easily imagine an alternate timeline where the frail George Washington died in late 1792 and got posthumous electoral votes.
In 1872, we actually did get three electors voting for a dead man (Horace Greeley, who had died between Election Day and the electoral college meeting) - but fortunately he'd lost the election, so that didn't matter. Now that I look it up, I see that Congress officially rejected their votes... but I'm not sure why.