Did Minnesota Senate Democrats oppose removing dead people from voter rolls? Here’s the real story

In late April 2026, a claim circulated online that Minnesota State Democratic senators had “just” unanimously objected to removing deceased people from the state’s voter rolls.

One X user (archived) said the decision meant the SAVE America Act, legislation that would impose stricter voter identification requirements nationwide, needed to be passed. The user wrote: “MN Senate Democrats just voted unanimously to OPPOSE removing dead people from the MN voter rolls. It’s time to pass the SAVE America Act.”

The suggestion in the post appeared to be that Democratic state senators in Minnesota voted to keep dead people on the voter rolls to potentially allow people to vote on their behalf — playing into President Donald Trump’s repeatedly debunked theory that the 2020 election was plagued with systemic voter fraud and, therefore, officials need to pass legislation to prevent future election rigging.

The rumor also spread on Facebook (archived) and Snopes readers emailed us and searched our site to find out if it is true.

Minnesota has both a statewide voter registration system that is a regularly updated record for registered voters in the state and “voter rolls,” which often refer to the list of actively registered, eligible voters. Social media users appeared to confuse the two.

In short, Minnesota Senate Democrats did unanimously oppose removing dead people from its voter registration system in late April 2026. That system, however, is not the same as the state’s rolls of eligible voters. The Democratic state senators did not try to keep deceased people on the eligible voter rolls; instead, they voted to keep them on the voter registration system to prevent anyone else from attempting to register using that identity. Therefore, we’ve rated this claim a mixture of true and false information.

The opposed amendment

On April 23, Minnesota Senate Democrats unanimously voted against (Page 28) an amendment Republican legislators attempted to add to senate bill SF 4223. The bill largely covers campaign finance and rules for candidates but also devotes a portion to election administration.

The proposed Republican amendment would have inserted two short sections into the election administration portion. The first section sought to remove deceased voters from the voter registration system:

“Section 1. Minnesota Statutes 2024, section 201.13, is amended by adding a subdivision to read:

Subd. 2a. Deceased voter removal. The county auditor must remove a voter from the statewide voter registration system after changing the voter’s status to “deceased.”

EFFECTIVE DATE. This section is effective the day following final enactment.“

The second sought to ensure deceased voters were removed from the voter registration system by June 1, 2027:

“Sec. 19. RETROACTIVE DECEASED VOTER REMOVAL.

The county auditor must remove all voters with “deceased” status from the statewide voter registration system by June 1, 2027.

EFFECTIVE DATE. This section is effective the day following final enactment.“

The final line of the proposed amendment notes that the motion “did not prevail” and, therefore, was “not adopted.”

Under current Minnesota law, county auditors are required to change a dead voter’s status to “deceased” in the statewide voter registration system. The law makes no mention of possibly removing the deceased voter from the system.

Minnesota’s voter registration system vs. voter rolls

Minnesota law does not clearly outline what it means when a voter’s status is changed to “deceased” in the registration system, based on the index of current state statutes. One of the state’s information pages confusingly says deceased voters are already removed from the registration system (See “Deaths” in “Before Election Day” section).

That’s because the state pulls its list of actively registered, eligible voters, commonly referred to as voter rolls, from this statewide voter registration system, but not every entry in the system goes on those rolls.

Peter Bartz-Gallagher, communications director for Minnesota’s office of the secretary of state, clarified via email: “Deceased voters are marked as deceased and removed from the list of active voters upon notification from the Minnesota Department of Health or Social Security Administration.”

He added: “Voter records marked as ‘deceased’ are not active and therefore not included on any voting roster or public information list.”

Minnesota’s Secretary of State Steve Simon is a Democrat.

The statewide registration system is the record of registered voters in Minnesota and a database that is constantly updated, according to a Feb. 20, 2026, FAQ page on the Minnesota Secretary of State website. Bartz-Gallagher said the information in this database is frequently changed “to ensure voter records remain current and accurate.”

The FAQ page differentiates this system from voter rolls, which it says commonly refer to registered voter lists made from a “point-in-time snapshot” of the registration system.

Minnesota law supports this; it says the “official list of eligible voters” is in the statewide voter registration system.

That means deceased voters remain in the broader voter record system but are removed from the eligible voter list.

Why names of deceased stay in voter registration system

Bartz-Gallagher said the value in keeping deceased names in the system is that it becomes a data security measure preventing anyone else from attempting to register using that identity.

In fact, Minnesota law requires the local electronic voter data equipment to be able to alert an election judge that the voter is not eligible to vote based on the information they’ve submitted for registration or identification.

Bartz-Gallagher referenced a case in which a woman was caught attempting to cast a vote for her dead mother in the 2024 presidential election. He said completely deleting the record of a deceased voter would prevent officials from immediately identifying such an issue.

In sum …

Minnesota Senate Democrats unanimously opposed legislation that would remove deceased voters entirely from a statewide voter registration system that also acts as a historical record of registered voters in the state.

This does not mean the Democratic state senators were trying to keep deceased voters on the state’s list of actively registered, eligible voters. In fact, Minnesota law, as of this writing, requires deceased voters to be removed from the list of actively registered, eligible voters.

Minnesota’s Office of the Secretary of State, which a Democrat runs, says keeping records of deceased voters in the broader system allows it to more easily catch people trying to vote or register to vote in a dead person’s name.