August primary bill up for Pawlenty's approval

The Minnesota Senate unanimously passed a bill Monday that would move the state primary election from September to August.

The bill is now headed to Governor Pawlenty who said he'll sign it.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was pushing the Legislature to pass the bill to comply with a new federal law that requires states to give overseas voters enough time to vote absentee.

"The federal government has mandated 45 days before both the primary and the general election that the absentee ballots must go out so that builds in a much longer-term process for the ballots to go overseas if it's to Baghdad, Bangkok, wherever and for the voters to fill them in and get them back to us in time," Ritchie said.

Under the bill the primary election will be held on August 10th this year. The general election will be on November 2nd.