“As far as we can tell, this is the largest number of voter fraud convictions arising from a single election in the past 75 years,” said Minnesota Majority president Jeff Davis, “Prosecutions are still underway and so there will likely be even more convictions.”

Minnesota Majority says that there have been 113 convictions due to felons voting in the 2008 elections. Their statistics come out of the 2.9 million Minnesota voters who voted in 2008, or about 0.004 percent of the 2008 voting population.

The group said that its findings show the need to eliminate same-day registration.

“The problem rests largely on our current Election Day registration system,” said Davis. “Most of the fraudulent votes cast in 2008 could have been prevented by using the normal registration and verification processes. But since the Election Day registration process does not include eligibility verifications, it simply leaves the door open to these kinds of abuses.”

Minnesota Majority claims credit for getting those felons prosecuted. It sent a list of thousands of names to county attorneys in order to get the 113 convictions.

“While this number may seem a small percentage of the 2,803 suspected ineligible voters originally submitted to county prosecutors for investigation, there is a wide gap between voting while ineligible and voting while knowingly ineligible,” the group’s report said.

Because Minnesota law says that a felon can’t be charged with voter fraud if they didn’t know they were committing a crime when they voted. And at least one progressive group is asking Minnesota Majority to abandon its efforts to restrict voting through voter ID and an end to same-day registration, instead asking them to support legislation that would educate felons about their voter status.

“Based on this report, Minnesota Majority should be at the head of the line advocating for passage of Rep. Bobby Champion’s felon notification bill when the 2012 legislative session convenes,” Take Action Minnesota said in a statement. “Had Governor Pawlenty not vetoed this bill, which passed with strong bi-partisan support in 2010, this would not be a problem.”

The group continued, “The reality is that Minnesota Majority’s report was issued as a vehicle for making sure their myth of voter fraud remains alive, when in reality Minnesota has the best elections system in the country. The only thing this report shows, is that many felons don’t know the status of their voting rights. And this is best corrected by passing the felon notification bill next session, not blowing up Minnesota’s excellent elections system.”

On Wednesday, Pawlenty vetoed (pdf) a bill that would have required that the state notify felons when their civil rights restored upon completion of their sentences — including providing voter-registration applications. He wrote:

[C]itizens should bear some responsibility for being informed about their situations and rights.

Last night, Pawlenty vetoed (pdf) a “motor-voter” bill that would have automatically registered eligible Minnesota residents as voters when they apply for licenses or permits to drive, or another state ID card. He wrote:

[R]egistering to vote should be a voluntary, intentional act.