Representative Mary Kiffmeyer was the driving force behind a bill that tightens up some behind the scenes election administration procedures. From the other side of the aisle, Representative Ryan Winkler was also a chief author. Senator Chris Gerlach championed the bill in the Senate, with Senators Katie Sieben and Ann Rest. Minnesota Majority provided testimony in favor of the bill in the House Government Operations and Elections committee.

 

HF3108, now passed unanimously by both legislative chambers addresses several of the concerns Minnesota Majority raised following the 2008 election. It’s expected that the governor will sign the bill into law in the next couple days.

 

After the 2008 election, Minnesota Majority discovered that not only were dead voters still on the voter rolls, but the secretary of state’s voter history files indicated that some had voted. The secretary of state’s office explained that data entry errors were more likely to blame in at least 5 instances, but not all have been investigated. The new bill will require the secretary of state’s office to conduct additional checks on the voter files to eliminate deceased voters, including cross-referencing the social security administration, essentially the same check Minnesota Majority performed to discover deceased voters. This will help ensure that the voter records of people who die out of state are properly removed, an integrity step that is severely hindered under the current election statutes.

 

Convicted felons on the voter rolls will also be more likely to be detected with a required check similar to what Minnesota Majority did to discover up to 2,800 felons who are suspected of voting illegally in the 2008 election. The secretary of state’s office will have to cross-reference voter registration records with the department of corrections database. Previously, felons were only challenged if the secretary of state or county auditors received a notice from the courts. Under the new bill, felons who are registered to vote will be proactively checked for.

 

In the wake of the contentious 2008 election, tens of thousands of newly registered voters could not be verified by mail. The secretary of state mails a postal verification card (PVC) to registrants, informing them of their polling location and confirming that they registered. If that post card is returned undeliverable, the voter is flagged for challenge at the next election, although their vote had already been counted. Over 60,000 of those postcards were returned after the 2008 election. This information isn’t easy for the public or the legislature to find. With passage of the election administration bill, a report to the legislature on returned PVCs will be generated after each general election, and county attorneys will be compelled to investigate instances where an obvious and legitimate explanation for a returned postcard can’t be discerned.

 

Although the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires checks for non-citizens, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie failed to use Department of Public Safety (DPS) data for the first two years he was in office to check for non-citizens on the voter rolls, even though DPS had provided his office a monthly update. The elections bill clarifies the secretary of state’s responsibility to use DPS data to determine whether known non-citizens have become registered to vote. The bill also requires notice to county attorneys when non-citizens are discovered on the voter rolls.

 

Minnesota Majority’s research revealed that the Statewide Voter Registration System’s voter history files cannot account for all ballots counted in the 2008 general election. The canvassing board reported 2,920,214 ballots, but as of April of 2009, the secretary of state could only account for 2,878,899 voters who participated in the 2008 election. That means over 40,000 ballots were counted than voters who signed in or submitted an absentee ballot.

 

The secretary of state’s office has since whittled that discrepancy down to around 25,000 ballots and suggested that the discrepancy can be explained by nuances in SVRS reporting and the dynamic nature of the system, but Minnesota Majority also examined original polling place rosters and absentee ballot envelopes in three Ramsey county precincts and found discrepancies there that can’t be accounted for by the secretary of state’s explanation. Between the three precincts scrutinized, over 50 more ballots had been counted in the certified election results than there were signatures of voters. There are thousands of precincts in Minnesota and it’s strongly suspected that there are similar discrepancies in many others.

 

To help combat future vote total discrepancies, the bill requires a reconciling of ballots at every precinct. Election judges will be required to count blank ballots received, ballots used, spoiled or duplicated, absentee ballots received and also count the number of voters who signed in. All counts must balance at the end of election night and a report of all counts must be prepared by the election judges.

 

Another significant feature of the bill comes courtesy of Representative Dan Severson, who discovered that a travesty had occurred regarding military absentee ballots in the 2008 election. Because the secretary of state’s office did not prepare and disseminate military ballots quickly enough, over 8% of the military absentee ballots that made it back to Minnesota were ultimately rejected, mostly because they arrived too late to be counted. As many as 2,100 other ballots sent out to military members overseas never came back at all, likely because they had already missed the deadline for return by the time they were received by the soldiers.

 

Severson, an Air Force veteran himself, fought for changes in the way military absentee ballots will be handled by Minnesota election officials. Under the new bill, soldiers deployed overseas will have more options for acceptable forms of absentee ballots and another elections bill Severson worked on that was recently signed by the governor addressed the small window of time for military ballots to be sent out and return. These new provisions will re-enfranchise our soldiers who should never be denied their right to participate in our elections.

 

Minnesota Majority is very pleased that our research and advocacy has compelled the legislature to take action to clean up some of the glaring problems in Minnesota’s election system. HF3108 is a great start on improving integrity in our elections, but it does leave some pretty big holes in place. Same-day registrants still aren’t subjected to the scrutiny voters who register in advance of an election are and the number of same-day registrants has risen sharply in recent years. Checks to verify the identity of same-day registrants aren’t performed until after their votes have been cast and counted.

 

The most obvious integrity measure is nowhere to be found in the bill. Requiring a photo ID to vote is the absolute best way to curtail fraud and verify residency for purposes of establishing a voter’s eligibility to vote in a given precinct. That isn’t going to happen this session, but we’ll continue to fight for it again next year. 

Minnesota Majority thanks all of our members who have taken part in the fight for election integrity by volunteering to help with research, showing up at rallies, signing the election integrity petition, calling legislators and everything else. Thanks also to the champions of the election administration bill: Representatives Mary Kiffmeyer (16B), Ryan Winkler (44B), Senators Chris Gerlach (37) and Katie Sieben (57).

Take Action: Contact your state representative and senator and tell them, 'thank you' for their vote for election integrity.