Clean Elections Minnesota

History and Mission

Clean Elections Minnesota, also known as Minnesota Citizens for Clean Elections, was founded in 2017. ⁴ Clean Elections Minnesota seeks to make election funding more transparent. ⁵ Clean Elections claims that Minnesota elections are fair and without malign influence, stating its mission is to fight those attacking the integrity of voting in Minnesota. ⁶

Clean Elections Minnesota seeks to make elections clean and fair, fight against voter suppression, and take big money out of politics. ⁷ Clean Elections Minnesota advocates for same-day voter registration, automatic voter registration with driver’s license applications, redistricting by a non-partisan committee, and restoring felons’ voting rights, and the group opposes voter ID laws and provisional ballot requirements. ¹

Views

While claiming to be non-partisan, Clean Elections Minnesota has linked news articles from David Litt, a former Obama administration speechwriter, writing about the alleged hijacking of the American election in 2016. ² Clean Elections also links to an article called “To Stop Democratic Backsliding Vote this November.” ⁸

Clean Elections Minnesota promotes left-of-center positions on abortion access, inflation, global warming, gun control, and making housing affordable. ⁹ Clean Elections criticizes the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC stating it was a “huge mistake.” ³ Clean Elections Minnesota seeks to overturn Citizens United, increase government funding of political campaigns, and strengthen the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board. ³ Clean Elections Minnesota has videos posted that discuss alleged “Trump Election Lies.” ³

Clean Elections Minnesota has said that Minnesota’s elections system is practically fraud proof. ¹⁰ Clean Elections Minnesota has rejected efforts in the Minnesota Senate to end same-day voter registration and voting, restrict drop off ballot boxes, limit mail-in ballots, and allow the use of provisional ballots until a voter can be verified. ¹¹

Finances

In 2020, Clean Elections Minnesota had net assets of $44,010. ¹² According to the organization’s tax returns, in 2020, Clean Elections Minnesota recorded $44,416 in revenue and $20,093 in expenses. ¹² In 2019, Clean Elections Minnesota had $15,836 in revenue and $5,156 in expenses. ¹³

Leadership

Mary Hartnett has been the executive director of Clean Elections Minnesota since January 2022. ¹⁴ Hartnett is also an advisor for Access Philanthropy, a consulting firm providing fundraising and organizational support to nonprofits. ¹⁵ Hartnett spent six years on the board of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. ¹⁴ Hartnett spent most of her career working on deaf issues having served as the executive director of the Commission on Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing Minnesotans; board member of the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Advisory Committee MDH; executive director of DeafBlind Services Minnesota; and executive director of the Deafness Education and Advocacy Foundation. ¹⁴

In 2021, Hartnett was the campaign manager for the Alicia Gibson for Ward 10 campaign in Minneapolis. ¹⁶ In a non-partisan election, Gibson’s proposals included left-leaning policies of limiting police authority, increased environmental regulations, protecting plants and insects though a civilian climate corps, and equity agenda economic policies. ¹⁷