Andrew E. Cilek
Executive Director
Minnesota Voters Alliance
Roseville, MN
The September 3 Fillmore County Journal commentary by Susan Ritter of the League of Women Voters is full of misleading information on voter fraud.
Ms. Ritter falsely asserts that Representative Duane Quam requested “individuals’ Social Security Numbers” (SSNs) from the Secretary of State and the Secretary refused to turn them over. Two errors: Mr. Quam never requested SSNs and the Secretary cannot refuse to provide them because the state election database does not contain (full) SSNs. Only partial (last four digits) SSNs, for a small fraction of voters, are recorded by the state, and Mr. Quam did not ask for those either. In fact, in his request to county auditors, Mr. Quam specifically declared that he was “not asking for any personal identification.”
Ms. Ritter then proceeds to make two misrepresentations about the Minnesota Voters Alliance (MVA) and its lawsuit against the Minnesota Secretary of State seeking release of public election data. She asserts that the MVA has claimed evidence of “massive illegal voting” and has presented none to the court. First, this is a distortion of the MVA’s claims that there is a large body of evidence indicating possible voting by ineligible persons and election officials are ignoring it. Second, the MVA has presented quantitative and detailed records from official state sources, including the Office of the Legislative Auditor, the Office of the Secretary of State, and the Social Security Administration, showing that thousands of voters have failed eligibility tests and that the state election database contains at least 2,800 instances of a person being recorded as having voted twice in the same election. Despite all of this authoritative evidence, there has never been any follow-up by election officials to assess it.
Ms. Ritter next gives us a misleading characterization of the March 2018 report from the Legislative Auditor by claiming that, “The report found that in the very rare instance when there are irregularities, they are caught.” Actually, the Auditor found that 26,000 voters in the 2016 election were marked “challenged” because they had previously failed a test of their eligibility but were allowed to vote anyway, because on election day they claimed they were eligible. State officials did not follow up and when the Auditor tested a small sample of 612 from the 26,000, he found that only 20 of the 612 may have been eligible to vote.
As for Ms. Ritter’s claim that ineligible voters are caught, we need only remember what Secretary of State Simon is proud of proclaiming, namely, that there have been only 11 convictions of voter fraud following the 2016 election. Mr. Simon’s determination to keep appealing the decisions of the Ramsey County District Court and the Minnesota Appeals Court in order to hide public election data is a major contributor to that low rate and a huge obstacle to assessing the true magnitude of ineligible voting in this state.
Ms. Ritter says, “It is important readers are given accurate information.” She did not follow her own advice.
Anne Marie Flynn, LWV-Fillmore Cty Voter Service Chair says
I have been a member of The League of Women Voters for many years and in several states. We do not endorse or support any candidates or political parties. We never have and never will. Our main mission is voter’s rights and we advocate for fair elections for all voters that are eligible to vote.
LWV also strongly believe in voter education so we host events like candidate forums so the voters can meet the candidates and decide for themselves who they want to vote for. A recent example was the candidate forum we organized in Spring Valley for the Third District County Commissioner Special Election. Both candidates were asked the same question to an audience of 31 people, pretty good for a beautiful Saturday morning in August!
LWV often study an issue before we decide on a position. In recent years, as our country has become more polarized; many of our positions after study and consensus, have agreed with one political party more than another.
I would encourage anyone that wanted to know more about the League of Women Voters to go to our website lWVmn.org.
James Helberg says
The Minnesota Voters Alliance (MVA) may be the most important electoral watchdog organization in the country. Probably the most blatant defender of corrupt electoral practices in the entire country is the Minnesota Secretary of State. Would that all states had something like the MVA.
Don Evanson says
The League of Women Voters — Minnesota has become a tool of the unhinged Democratic party, and Minnesota’s DFL partisan-hack Secretary of State Steve Simon.
Election oversight needs to be removed from the duties of the Secretaries office, and placed into the hands of a bi-partisan legislative oversight committee with the funding to execute election duties, or in the hands of a newly created bi-partisan-staffed department of the State.
Minnesota needs to move to the use of provisional ballots, which remain sealed for later counting once the eligibility of the voter is verified, and only processed if their counting could change the election results.
A voter I.D. would also help to assure the integrity of our elections.
Contrary to existing practice established by the Secretary of State, absentee and early voting ballots need to be returned to the local precincts for opening and counting on election day, as has been historic practice, for opening and counting under the oversight of local precinct bi-partisan election judges.
Anonymous says
Thank you Andy Cilek and MVA for important work that you do
Dave Peterson says
Obviously, the League of Women Voters needs to change its name to “the League of Democrat Women Voters,” since they’re obviously carrying the water for scofflaw secretary of state Steve Simon who is currently in violation of two court orders to release voter registration data.
What is SOS Simon and the Democrat Party hiding?
In an election where the Democrat candidate only “won” by 44,000 votes and where we know that at least 25,000 votes were case illegally – and that it’s the Democrats who are trying to prevent the cleaning up of our election system, it’s not hard to come to the conclusion that the Democrats are benefitting from vote fraud and that they will do everything to keep control over the voting system – even to the point of publishing lies.
mary smith says
as an election judge who’s has been following this and MN Voters Alliance, i find the concerns and FACTS of Mr Erding and Cilek very credible… to help you do more research on your own go to… http://www.mnvoters.org
Greg Buck says
What have been the consequences (intended and un-intended) of changing election laws to allow people to vote before their eligibility to vote is established? That is what Cilek and Minnesota Voters Alliance want to know.
The people of Minnesota would be shocked to know how many people vote before their eligibility has been verified. Eligibility test are performed, at some level, after the votes have been counted. How effective are those tests? How many of those voters failed the tests and should have been prevented from voting? The Secretary of State doesn’t want you to know. The Secretary of State also opposes “Provisional Ballots”, allowing to people to cast a vote, but verifying eligibility before counting the ballot.
Cilek is asking the curtain to be drawn back and for a little sunshine to fall on this process.
Does anyone really have problems with that?
Don Huizenga says
You’ll never find termites until you open the wall. MVA is attempting to open this wall only to have Steve Simon lock the gates to the yard…despite being told by two different courts to do so.. Ms Ritter is nothing more than an accomplice to this game of hide and seek, spreading lies and propaganda under the heading of “information” as a means to do what Steve Simon is doing…hiding the tremites.
Jeffrey Erding says
Those of us who understand the vital importance of a fair and transparent election process are very pleased MVA is working every day to root out potential dishonest voting practices. Thank you for all you do.
Some folks may not get it, but this is terribly important to Americans of all political parties. I plan to contact MVA very soon to offer whatever support is possible. I urge my readers and friends of all political groups to do the same. The responsibility to expect and demand due diligence from our Secretary of State and all election officials transcends party lines and political beliefs.