MEDIATION AND POST-ELECTION LITIGATION B. The Role of the Secretary of State's Office The centralized nature of Minnesota's election regime is personified in the secretary of state, who is designated the state's chief election officer. 12 8 Secretary Mark Ritchie's role in managing the 2008 recount nicely illustrates a potential place for mediation in post-election disputes. In Minnesota, the secretary of state (an elected position) plays a key role in managing elections in general and recounts and contests in particular. 129 The Office of Elections is housed within the Office ofthe Secretary of State (OSS). In Minnesota, the secretary of state serves as one of five members of the state Canvassing Board. 130 During the early days of the 2008 senate recount, Minnesota secretary of state mediated process disputes between the campaigns (and other interested parties) to establish the recount process. While there are several important ways in which this process differed from a typical mediation, the similarities are instructive. An early example of Ritchie's mediator-like role came just after Election Day when the need for a recount became apparent. Secretary Ritchie reached comprehensive view of state modes of election administration and argues for centralized administration to ease efficiency and reduce partisanship); Jocelyn Friedrichs Benson, One Person, One Vote: Protecting Access to the Franchise Through the Effective Administration of Election Procedures and Protections, 40 URB . LAW. 269, 273 (2008) (describing the role of secretaries of state as chief election administrators and argues for centralization). 128 The Minnesota Constitution grants the secretary of state a central role. See MINN. CONST. art. VII, § 8 ("Election returns to secretary of state; board of canvassers. The returns of every election for officeholders elected statewide shall be made to the secretary of state who shall call to his assistance two or more of the judges of the supreme court and two disinterested judges of the district courts. They shall constitute a board of canvassers to canvass the returns and declare the result within three days after the canvass."). 129 See MJNN. STAT. §§ 204B.l45-46 (redistricting); 204B.27 (election administration); 2048.47 (giving SoS authority to adopt alternative election procedures to permit the administration of any election affected by court orders); MINN. R. 8235 .0200 (recounts). 130 See MINN. STAT.§ 204C.31, subdiv. 2 ("The state canvassing board shall consist of the secretary of state, two judges of the supreme court and two judges of the district court selected by the secretary of state. None of the judges shall be a candidate at the election. If a judge fails to appear at the meeting of the canvassing board, the secretary of state shall fill the vacancy in membership by selecting another judge who is not a candidate at the election. Not more than two judges of the supreme court shall serve on the canvassing board at one time."). 357 HeinOnline -- 27 Ohio St. J. on Disp. Resol. 357 2012