Minnesota Majority's Two-Year Call for Reforms Finally Heeded

Today Governor Tim Pawlenty signed the Election Administration Reform Bill into law, establishing a critical milestone in addressing problems that have undermined the integrity of Minnesota’s election system. 

Minnesota Majority, a government watchdog group who has been calling for election reforms for nearly two years, applauded the action. “This is a good first step toward improving the integrity of our election system,” said Jeff Davis, President of Minnesota Majority. “We thank all of our members who have joined us in the fight for reforms, as well as the legislators who championed the bill, including Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer, Rep. Ryan Winkler, Sen. Chris Gerlach and Sen. Katie Sieben.” The bill, HF3108, was passed by unanimous consent in both the House and the Senate, an unusual occurrence for major reform legislation.

Minnesota Majority began researching inconsistencies in Minnesota’s election system prior to the 2008 general election. Minnesota Majority warned Secretary of State Mark Ritchie of its findings which Ritchie largely dismissed. After the election, Minnesota Majority discovered numerous problems with election records, including thousands more ballots counted than voters that had been accounted for as having voted, thousands of unverifiable voter registration addresses, deceased voters on the rolls, felon voters and incomplete voter registrations. Minnesota Majority’s research indicated that enough convicted felons cast fraudulent votes to affect the outcome of the 2008 Senate race.

HF3108 addresses many of these issues by requiring the secretary of state to perform a number of database cross-checks similar to what Minnesota Majority did to uncover the problems in the first place. In addition, new reporting and ballot reconciliation requirements in the bill will help prevent recurrence of those kind of issues and reveal where problems persist.

While HF3108 made significant improvements, Minnesota Majority says there’s still work to be done. “The next step is to secure the vote with a photo ID requirement,” Said Davis.

Take Action: Contact your elected officials and thank them for taking steps to protect the integrity of Minnesota's elections. It might also be a good time to remind them of the continued need for photo ID at the polls.