Reports of voter intimidation, voter fraud scarce on election day

Minnesota media is reporting several instances of overzealous election challengers in polling places as the Republican Party of Minnesota ramps up its allegations of voter fraud. In several Minnesota precincts, reporters confirmed that GOP poll challengers have overstepped their bounds. Meanwhile, the GOP claims that ballot scanners were not working properly in some jurisdictions and that group home assistants have been telling people how to vote.

As Ellison decries tea party ‘voter intimidation’ efforts, data shows fraud is rare

“Voter fraud. It’s a felony.” So reads the “wanted” poster–style type on new posters being distributed by Republican and tea party groups ahead of election day. What they don’t say is it’s also exceedingly rare. As Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison decries such efforts at attempts to intimidate voters, Hennepin County provides the Minnesota Independent with data that shows only .00006 percent of votes cast in 2008 were done so fraudulently.

Secretary of State’s office says laws may have been broken in Somali translator voting incident

The Minnesota Secretary of State’s office says that if Coleman staffer Mahoumad Wardere was on site at Brian Coyle Center for most of the afternoon that Minnesota election laws were “potentially” broken. According to Beth Fraser, director of governmental affairs at the Secretary of State’s office, an interpreter can only be inside a polling place if they are assisting a specific voter. They cannot remain onsite, as we reported Wardere did, acting as a go-to interpreter.

Witnesses claim Somali polling place translator was telling people to vote for Coleman

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 was instructing people to vote for Sen. Norm Coleman.

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

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie: ‘Misrepresentation and voter initimidation will not be tolerated by this office’

In a video released today by the UpTake, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie outlined allegations of voter intimidation by Minnesota Majority. Ritchie revealed during a press conference on Wednesday that someone working for Minnesota Majority president Jeff Davis was phoning voters and posing as a representative of the Secretary of State’s office. We wrote about the group’s tactics last week, exposing how their attempts at questioning the integrity of Minnesota’s voter rolls was, according to Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann, one of the ways the conservative organization was trying to suppress votes in Democrat-leaning counties.

Learn more about the lawsuit here, and watch the video by the UpTake of the press conference and Minnesota Majority’s ties to former SoS Mary Kiffmeyer after the jump.