How Donald Trump almost missed the ballot in Minnesota (and what that says about his campaign)

By Amber Phillips August 25 at 1:53 PM

Donald Trump was not expected to win Minnesota — but he very nearly didn't even have the chance to try. And the reason is a perfect reminder of all the things that can go wrong when a candidate relies on a party to essentially prop up a presidential campaign, as Trump has done.

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It turns out Minnesota Republicans skipped over one rather banal but important step: electing alternates for the electoral college. Minnesota Republicans elected their members to the electoral college — the people who actually cast the ballot for president and vice president — at their state convention in May. But apparently they forgot to elect alternates for those electors, a necessary step in Minnesota to certify your party gets on the ballot.

Minnesota GOP officials blamed new rules about requiring alternates for the confusion, and others have pointed out the state party's constitution didn't even allow for electing alternates.

But the bottom line is still this: The state Republican Party messed up — and Trump was the one who took the hit.

The state party's leaders got together and appointed alternates to try to fix the problem, and all their paperwork is expected to be in line to have Trump on the ballot this week (the deadline is Monday). But it's not clear that appointing alternates rather than electing them is even allowed under state party rules. Brodkorb told The Fix the party leaves itself vulnerable to legal challenges that could potentially knock Trump off the ballot again.

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