“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.”

It’s there, in the Dinkytown neighborhood on the edge of the University of Minnesota campus, that poll workers recorded 133 more votes than they have ballots to show for it. It’s also there that students trying to vote via Minnesota’s same-day registration process were turned away in a re-run of a major snafu at another campus polling place during the general election two years ago.

As the Minnesota Independent reported Nov. 25, residents at The Chateau student co-op highrise who tried to register at the polls on Election Day, using proof of residency issued by the building’s management office as a second form of ID, were turned away until as late as 5 p.m. For the MnIndy video accompanying that story, student Jill Stein told of returning to the polling place twice before giving up and voting at her parents’ home precinct in the suburbs. How many of the 290 students who live in The Chateau likewise made honest attempts but were ultimately unable to vote is anyone’s guess.

The Chateau fiasco is a direct descendant of a similar situation that happened nearby during the 2006 election, as Beth Fraser, government affairs director at the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office, explained in an interview with MnIndy last month. Residents of the Melrose Student Suites, an off-campus housing complex in the nearby Stadium Village area, likewise pay utilities as part of their rent, and poll workers rejected documentation from the building management as a form of ID.

Just as with Chateau residents this year, students from the Melrose who tried to register at the polls in 2006 had to wait until late on Election Day to cast their ballots. That’s when Hennepin County Judge Gary Larson ruled in favor of a petition from Melrose resident and first-year U of M student Greg Shaffer. Larson ordered election officials to accept the Melrose proof of residency and to keep the polling place open an hour later. In doing so, Larson overruled a decision by then-Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer to deny the students ballots.

The case had broader repercussions. The new secretary of state who won election in 2006, Mark Ritchie, wanted to take the office in a voter-positive direction after the Kiffmeyer-era policies that sometimes emphasized voter suppression. In the wake of the Melrose decision, his office “proposed and adopted
 rule changes to allow the use of the itemized rent statement in lieu of a 
utility bill,” Fraser wrote in an e-mail to MnIndy this week. As she tells it:

In 2008, a new proof of residence was authorized specifically to address the 
challenges of registering to vote by those whose utilities are included in 
their rent: a rent statement from a resident’s landlord that itemizes their 
utilities. The statement that the Chateau originally provided did not 
suffice, because it was not addressed to the student and did not itemize 
their utility expenses. Residents of the Chateau later received a revised
statement and used it to register to vote.

But despite Ritchie’s intention to resolve this kind of polling-place problem, the new rule came as a surprise to The Chateau’s management when they found out about it on Election Day, and the result was the same for students who were unable to vote for most of the day.

How does Ritchie’s office plan to avoid yet another repeat of the problem next time? Fraser writes:

This office will work with the Minnesota Multi Housing Association and student organizations to ensure that apartment building owners and students are familiar with what is needed in a rent statement that can be used in combination with a photo ID for the purpose of Election Day Registration.

The Minnesota Daily, in an editorial this week — following a news story that, like MnIndy’s, featured Chateau resident Jill Stein — recommended just such an approach to city election officials, reminding its student readers, “Your vote should count.”

But with the lost and missing votes in Minneapolis Precinct 1, Ward 3 already playing a central role in the current recount drama, more drastic proposals for Minnesota to get its election practices right are sure to be advanced.

Indeed, one already has: Ritchie’s rival for the DFL endorsement in 2006, Christian Sande, wrote an article earlier this year urging the state to consider following Wisconsin’s example and grant responsibility for managing elections to a commission of current and retired judges. It’s a move that could involve doing away with the office of secretary of state altogether.

The problem: Election officials would not accept the same kind of proof of residency they had in the past — a letter from building management that explains Chateau residents pay for their heat and electricity as part of their rent and therefore don’t have individual utility bills. A revised letter prepared quickly after the Chateau’s office opened at 10 a.m. didn’t pass muster either. A call to the national Election Protection hotline got the Minnesota Secretary State’s office and the Minneapolis City Attorney’s office involved. Finally, at 4 p.m., after much back and forth, the Chateau office got word that within the hour election officials would accept a third version of the letter that mimicked an invoice.

But by then, some of the Chateau’s 290 residents were turned away from the polls with a letter in hand that had always worked in past years — and some weren’t able to return to vote in the final three hours the polling place was open.

How many voters might’ve been turned away is unclear. About a quarter of Chateau residents are international students who are ineligible to vote, according to the Chateau’s management office, and of the others — likewise, all students — some probably pre-registered, voted absentee or were already on the voter rolls from past elections. With the statewide recount underway in the U.S. Senate race continuing to show a gap of fewer than 200 votes between leading candidates Al Franken and incumbent Norm Coleman, every vote counts.

But the transient student population in the building includes many first-time voters or recently moved-in residents who rely on Minnesota’s same-day voting registration to exercise their franchise. One was Jill Stein, who spoke with Minnesota Independent reporters recently about her experiences on Election Day. Stein returned twice to the polling place in the morning before giving up and arranging a ride from her parents so she could cast a ballot at their home polling place in Robbinsdale.

Some polling places might have parking for voters but don’t count on it (even if there is some it might be taken) and all polling places are required to be accessible. If you expect either of these to be an issue giving yourself additional time is a good idea you can also contact your county if you have additional questions. (See earlier links on how to contact your county’s election office.)

Who can I vote for?
This will give you your voting location and at the bottom there should be a link that lists all of the people who will be on your ballot.

It is not what a ballot will look like but is a list of all the candidates and seats that are going to be on the ballot in your area.

You can get an actual sample ballot at your local county unit search google if this search doesn’t turn up your county simply add in the name of your county. You can also get to your county’s main website directly here.

Everyone in Minnesota will have the same list of candidates for most of the statewide and federal offices so if your county doesn’t provide sample ballots (Ramsey County) you can go and check out another county’s ballot (Hennepin County) for the top portion that will be similar. Your congressional information will be different as will any statewide legislative seat but you can still get a good idea of what it will look like.

You can print out a sample ballot and actually check off who you want to vote for ahead of time. You won’t be able to turn that sheet of paper but this will be an open test and you can use your notes.

Other offices
Depending on where you live you may have additional races in a nonpartisan ballot. Some of these types of seats are County Commissioners, Sheriff, Park Board, Judicial Seat, Soil and Water and County Attorney. These seats will only be on the ballot if there are more than two people running for them.

In these races you only get to vote for one person but they can be from any party (and it will not list their party affiliation on the ballot so it’s good to give a little research to them if only to make sure that you aren’t voting for someone who is opposed to everything you are for.)

The top two candidates from each of these races will go on to the ballot in November.

The primary election gives you a chance to get out there and support your favorite candidates early with a simple action (big turn outs mean big media stories, big donations, and big talk so your vote can make a big difference).

Traditionally primaries also mark the point at which candidates with primary challengers will be shifting their focus to grab the general voting public.

You don’t get to do write in votes in the primary, you can only vote for people already on the ballot.

Can I vote?
Anyone who is a registered voter can vote in the primaries. You can register on election day as long as you meet these requirements:

• at least 18 years of age
• a US citizen
• a Minnesota resident for at least 20 days before the election
• not a convicted felon without your civil rights
• not under guardianship of the person where you have not retained the right to vote
• not legally incompetent

and bring these:

• Minnesota driver’s license, learner’s permit, identification card, or receipt for one, with your current address
• Tribal ID
• If the Minnesota license, Tribal ID or MN State ID has a former address, you may bring a recent utility bill to use with your license
• “Notice of Late Registration
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