Voting Integrity Issues - Citizens Demand Reforms

St. Paul – Today Minnesota Majority held a press conference announcing that it is filing a formal complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice. A review of Minnesota’s voter registration rolls prior to the election revealed a number of irregularities. Minnesota Majority requested the Secretary of State and officials in 30 different counties to conduct investigations into these irregularities. Authorities have thus far been largely unresponsive or dismissive. The complaint cites a number of provisions under the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) that require the Secretary of State to perform certain voter registration verifications on a regular basis. The group contends that the Secretary of State has failed to perform these verifications.

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Minnesota Majority also announced that it was seeking additional information from the Secretary of State and county officials under Minnesota’s Data Practices Act. Examples of the information being requested include voter verification postcards returned by the postal service as being “undeliverable”, voters registered by “vouching” and voters flagged by the Secretary of State to be “challenged” at the polls prior to casting their ballot. A citizen’s petition has been created to call public attention to the problem and allow concerned voters to weigh-in on the issue with their elected officials. The petition, which can be signed online at ElectionIntegrityPetition.com, calls for a special investigation into election system irregularities. It also calls upon elected officials to enact election reforms, such as requiring voters to present government-issued photo ID before receiving a ballot and requiring voters to register at least 30 days prior to an election so that all voters can be certified as legally qualified to vote prior to Election Day. At today’s press conference, Minnesota Majority was joined by a number of concerned citizens, including speakers Lt. Col. Joe Repya, Yoman Brunson, and Rene Ramirez. “These are examples of people who are being disenfranchised by failures to maintain the integrity of our voter rolls,” said Jeff Davis, Minnesota Majority’s president. “Rene, Yoman, Joe and I are registered, eligible voters. We’re concerned that our voice in our democracy could be undermined by errors and irregularities in the system. That’s why we’ve introduced this petition for concerned citizens to join in our demand for greater transparency and integrity in our election system.” Minnesota Majority’s independent investigation into irregularities in the voter registration list maintained by the Secretary of State’s office revealed situations strikingly similar to discoveries in Wisconsin. An investigation by a joint taskforce comprised of the US Attorney, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Milwaukee County Attorney and the Milwaukee Police Department revealed election system issues that could very well be occurring in Minnesota. Their discoveries included widespread recordkeeping failures, suspected double voting, fraudulent voter registrations, felons voting or registering to vote, vote counts in excess of the number of registered voters in the county and other problems. “Law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin have turned-up the same sort of issues in their investigations as we appear to be finding here in Minnesota,” Davis said, “the difference is that in Minnesota, our officials seem to be in denial that there may be similar problems here.” Minnesota Majority says the Coleman/Franken recount underscores the importance of ensuring integrity in voter registration. “The security and scrutiny around the recount of ballots looks like Fort Knox,” said Davis. “But because of lax controls in our voter registration process, we will never actually know whether all of these ballots were cast by legally eligible voters.” Supporting documentation related to this story can be found at: [url=http://www.minnesotamajority.org/Resources/ElectionIntegrityResources/tabid/187/Default.aspx]http://www.minnesotamajority.org/Resources/ElectionIntegrityResources/tabid/187/Default.aspx[/url]

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