MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota, USA (AP) – A judge ordered a rephrasing of part of a question about the future of the City Police Department that will be included on a ballot that Minneapolis voters will soon have before them.
The proposal has become a crucial issue in the November elections and has drawn national attention, and resources, for citizens to decide the future of the city’s public safety after the death of African-American George Floyd at the hands of the police. .
Hennepin County District Judge Jamie Anderson on Friday ordered the city to withdraw an explanatory note outlining the details of the proposal to voters, the Star Tribune newspaper reported.
“The proper function of the ballot is to assist the voter in easily and accurately identifying what they are voting for,” Anderson wrote. “Even in service of this principle, attempts to clarify issues to voters in good faith can create an unfair advantage in one way or another if superfluous information is allowed.”
The political action committee, Yes 4 Minneapolis, circulated petitions earlier in the year and gathered enough signatures to include a proposal before voters. The mayor and the City Council had to determine the text that would be on the ballot.
City authorities approved the text on the ballot asking voters if they want to “suppress and replace the Police Department with a Department of Public Safety that uses a comprehensive public health approach and includes law enforcement officers. licensed (police officers) if necessary, to fulfill their public safety responsibilities ”. The text referred voters to an accompanying explanatory note that provided more details.
Yes 4 Minneapolis sued the city on the grounds that it lacked the authority to include the explanatory note and that the content was “confusing.”
Anderson said the city may include explanatory notes, but that the wording of this particular proposal was “problematic.” The city prosecutor’s office said it was reviewing the order to decide its response.
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