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Focus on New Laws: Cities Administering Absentee Voting Must Use .Gov Domain Name
Unlike other internet domains, .gov is only available to official U.S.-based government organizations and publicly controlled entities.
A new law passed during the 2024 legislative session included in Chapter 112, requires all Minnesota cities and counties that administer absentee voting to utilize a .gov domain for their official city and county websites by June 1, 2026.
If a city has applied for a .gov domain but has not fully transitioned to the .gov domain by June 1, 2026, the city is not in violation of the new law but must fully transition by June 1, 2028.
The law also allows Voting Operation, Technology, and Elections Resource (VOTER) Account funding to be eligible to be used for costs associated with transitioning to a .gov domain.
The .gov internet domains are only provided to U.S.-based government organizations and publicly controlled entities. Internet users visiting a .gov website or receiving an email from a .gov email address can be more confident that the content is genuine government information.
The .gov domain is available to eligible organizations for free and can be obtained at get.gov. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is the federal agency that manages the .gov domain and reviews applications from eligible entities.