Mahamoud Wardere (in red shirt) talks to voter

Earlier today, three voters of Somali origin at the Brian Coyle Center in Minneapolis told me — and two told an election observer — that a translator working there may have interfered with voters.

In addition, the presence of a staffer from Norm Coleman’s office who says he came to volunteer his services as a GOP challenger or translator also stirred controversy between election judges and challengers.

The tussles started this morning around 10:30, when three white male Republican vote challengers arrived at the Brian Coyle Community Center in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis claiming that they had received a phone call indicating that Somali translators there were telling area residents to vote for Democrats.

One of the challengers confronted an election judge with the claim. The Somali community had about eight translators there assisting. The election judge assured that translators were only there to provide language assistance.

Two Republican challengers monitoring voters at Brian Coyle Center

Two Republican challengers monitoring voters at Brian Coyle Center

The men then called in a GOP-affiliated Somali translator. According to eyewitnesses, he is well-known in the Somali community because he works at Sen. Norm Coleman’s office. The man initially refused to give me his name, but later conceded that he is Mahamoud Wardere, a staffer in Norm Coleman’s US Senate office.

At about the time of his arrival, a few of the community translators were confronted by the remaining white GOP challenger. He asked one woman, who was a volunteer, if she had been sworn in. (Translators do not need to be sworn in.) At another point he told the election judge that the translators could not be at the voting booths “hovering around.” He also confronted some other translators directly, but refused to let me hear what he was saying. Some of the translators left, one person told me of feeling “intimidated.” Yet Wardere admitted to me that he never heard anyone telling voters how to vote, and was unsure why the GOP challenger was confronting the translators.

Wardere, who hung around and talked to voters inside, was eventually asked to leave the voting area, since he was not allowed to serve as both an election challenger and a translator — for his own part, Wardere initially said he was uncertain whether he was called in as a challenger or a translator — nor could there be more than one GOP challenger in the room.

But the Coleman staffer did not leave the premises. From around 11:00 onward, Wardere sat in a nearby room, greeting and conversing with people. “People know him and like him,” one person told me. “But we all know him as a campaigner.”

As the day progressed, more confusion ensued about voter laws and Wardere’s role in the polling place. Three eyewitnesses told me that a translator told them to vote for Norm Coleman, though those individuals declined to give their names or point out the specific translator. One man said he was afraid to give his name because he didn’t want people to get mad at him, but added that “it is just not right.”

[UPDATED: This paragraph and the quoted passage below contains a modified version of the source's claims.] A polling observer from Election Protection, a non-partisan group working polling places, also told me of complaints that two people had made to her. To quote from an email she sent to correct my original characterization:

What two people told me, and what I relayed to Ms. Priesmeyer three separate times, was that a woman in red headdress appeared to be approaching only elderly, non-English speaking voters and offering them translation services. They said that the woman in red headdress was physically filling out the ballot, rather than allowing the elderly voter to do so, and making selections contrary to the elderly voter’s intent. One of the people who approached me said that in one instance she witnessed an elderly voter indicate that she wanted to vote for Al Franken, and the woman in red headdress selected Norm Coleman instead. She also pointed out the gentleman identified in the article as Mr. Wardere and identified him as someone who works in Norm Coleman’s campaign office (as did many others). She said he had been hanging around the polling place (a gymnasium) and then in a separate room to the left of the polling place throughout the day. She said that he had been approaching and talking to others who were coming to vote.

I did not observe, nor was I told, nor did I state to Ms. Priesmeyer or anyone else that a woman in red headdress was bringing elderly voters to the man identified in the article as Mr. Wardere (or to anyone else, for that matter).

The election judge, Margie Sanronman, said she has never seen things so ugly. She’s served as a volunteer judge for the precinct for 10 years. “It’s been disruptive all day,” she said. “We’ve had a disruptive challenger. People fighting with each other. They’ve been complaining about people all day.”

The disruptive challenger she spoke of was the GOP challenger, who declined to speak to me.

For more on the story, read Nekessa Opoti’s account from the Twin Cities Daily Planet.

Below: A 2006 press release that details Wardere’s role in Norm Coleman’s campaign, and a video interview by the UpTake of a volunteer translator who was “challenged” by the GOP challenger on site.

COLEMAN ANNOUNCES $106,971 GRANT FOR THE CONFEDERATION OF SOMALI COMMUNITY IN MINNESOTA
Ethnic Community Self-Help grant will help fund the East African Women’s Center
August 3rd, 2006 – St. Paul, MN – Senator Coleman announced today the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota (CSCM) will receive a $106,971 Ethnic Community Self-Help grant from the United States Office of Refugee Resettlement. The grant will support the work of the East African Women’s Center in contextual language learning, school readiness and parenting in America, the Woman to Woman Connection (a support network to bridge cultures), navigation of the social service and healthcare systems, and a textile cooperative.

“I am pleased to announce CSCM will receive this grant,” said Coleman. “Minnesota has the largest Somali population in the country, and I have pledged to offer my support for them in Congress. CSCM does fantastic work on behalf of the local Somali community. I was pleased to assist them in obtaining this grant and I applaud the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement for recognizing the importance of CSCM.”

“I feel great. We are happy to receive the grant,” said Saeed Fahia, Executive Director of the CSCM. “It will help the Somali women to integrate into the state of Minnesota. Senator Coleman helped secure this grant for us and we appreciate it.”

Senator Coleman has worked closely with the Somali community while in the Senate, having most recently secured the extension of Temporary Protected Status for certain Somalis living in the United States. Coleman also has a Somali immigrant, Mahamoud Wardere, on his staff to help facilitate and increase his outreach to the Somali community.

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