Court cases involving election judges and ballot witnessing will be heard within the next three weeks.

The Minnesota Voters Alliance (MVA), Republican Party of Minnesota (RPM), and several others have challenged  several major cities and counties in Minnesota for preventing Republican election judges from serving on the absentee ballot boards and from reviewing absentee ballot envelopes.

Ramsey County District Court Judge Gilligan has scheduled an expedited hearing for Wednesday, August 26th at 1:30 p.m. The Judge has ordered the hearing to be held remotely via Zoom, and MVA has asked the court to make the Zoom hearing public.

In a separate action last week, the Minnesota Supreme Court agreed to fast-track a challenge to absentee ballot rules issued by the Secretary of State. Citing the COVID-19 pandemic as justification, the Secretary of State Steve Simon suspended the legal requirement that people voting remotely get a witness. (Usually the voter needs to complete their ballot in front of a witness, who then must sign the signature envelope and list their address. The witness can be either a registered Minnesota voter or a notary.) Liberal groups had challenged the witnessing requirement, and Simon simply waived the requirement under a consent decree that was approved by a lower court.

The Trump’s campaign, Minnesota Republican Party and other GOP groups are appealing the lower court ruling. Chief Justice Lorie Gildea informed the parties Wednesday that the high court will hear the case Sept. 3.