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.

Most election experts have indicated that there haven’t been widespread reports of voter intimidation or voter fraud. As Secretary of State Mark Ritchie tweeted today, “Voter intimidation reports in MPLS but mostly it is a smooth as silk voting day”

The Associated Press reports that in Hennepin County there have been some tense conversations between election judges and GOP challengers who don’t seem to understand the rules.

Hennepin County Elections Manager Rachel Smith said that the poll challengers were entering restricted areas and making challenges that are against the rules. She told TPM, “I think we were very firm, we had to be very firm with some of the polling place challengers who wanted to have more range in the polling place than the law permitted them to.”

The Minnesota Independent received a report this morning that a poll challenger at the Emerson school in the Loring Park area of Minneapolis was challenging Somali voters. That report could not be immediately verified, however.

The Star Tribune reports that in Shakopee a GOP challenger questioned the registration of a voter because he was “too young.”

In Bloomington, the Star Tribune reports, an African American woman was asked by an election judge if she was a felon after she had already affirmed her oath. “I am an African American woman and I do believe this old Caucasian biddy was targeting me,” she told the Minneapolis paper. “Things are getting out of hand!”

Election Integrity Watch, a conservative group offering a $500 bounty for reports of voter fraud, has been bringing their “Voter Fraud. It’s a Felony,” banner to neighborhoods in St. Paul on a trailer behind a pickup truck, according to a number of Twitter reports.

Rep. Keith Ellison called the billboard “voter intimidation.”

“Minnesota residents have reported sightings of a mobile billboard driving through Minneapolis affixed with Election Integrity Watch’s poster of an individual in handcuffs, which is designed to suppress and intimidate voters,” he said. “If this proves to be true, it threatens Minnesota’s tradition of expanding the electorate and making it easy for people to participate in our voting process.”

He added, “I urge voters to stand up to Election Integrity Watch’s intimidation efforts, go to the polls, and cast your vote. There is nothing to be afraid of. If you are an eligible voter, you will be welcomed at the polls. Our state has a proud tradition of voting, and we need you to be part of it.”

On the flip side, the Minnesota GOP has been alleging voter fraud and voting machine problems.

The Star Tribune looked at one such case and found that a premarked ballot in Blaine was a simple error.

The GOP said that last week, absentee voters from an assisted living community in Crow Wing County were told how to vote by employees. Montgomery Jensen, a resident who filed an affidavit, challenged the voters’ mental disabilities and said the disability should disqualify them from voting.

The story was amplified by Fox News on Tuesday.

The GOP also alleges that “voting machines” in areas of the state have been malfunctioning. Minnesota uses scanning machines to tabulate paper ballots.

“The Republican Party of Minnesota has already received multiple reports of scanning machines failing to work in Duluth, Olmsted County, Lakeville, Faribault, Mendota Heights and Eagan,” said party chair Tony Sutton in a statement. “This is completely unacceptable. These machines should have been tested thoroughly before the election. The fact that we are seeing such failures around the state again demonstrates that Mark Ritchie has failed to properly prepare for the election, meaning Minnesotans could be disenfranchised because of Ritchie’s incompetence.”

“Voter fraud. It’s a felony.” So reads the “wanted” poster–style type on new fliers 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 characterizes such efforts as “voter intimidation” — citing distribution of posters in traditionally DFL-leaning areas like college campuses and bus stops in lower-income neighborhoods — Hennepin County provides the Minnesota Independent with data that shows only .006 percent of votes cast in 2008 were done so fraudulently.

Three conservative groups — Minnesota Majority, the North Star Tea Party Patriots, and the Minnesota Voters Alliance — have partnered to launch Election Integrity Watch (EIW), a project that advocates for voter identification laws and blames ACORN and DFLers for advancing voter fraud in Minnesota. The groups will be watching for voter fraud by sending teams of volunteers to the polls next Tuesday to shoot photos or videos of buses arriving at polling places, challenge voting and monitor assisted-living communities. EIW is offering a $500 reward to anyone who provides evidence that leads to a conviction for illegal voting.

EIW’s activities are part of a national campaign, and allegations of voter intimidation are already cropping up in early voting states including Texas and Florida.

They’re also behind the  fliers and advertisements showing a handcuffed man that Rep. Ellison says is part of a voter-intimidation campaign.

“To scare people is wrong,” Ellison said at a press conference at Minneapolis City Hall Tuesday. “There’s not going to be anybody putting you in handcuffs.”

“This is not about voter fraud. It’s about voter intimidation,” he said. “Our proud history of civic participation is under threat from shadowy groups who are attempting to scare people away from the polls. In reality, Minnesota’s voter protection laws are strong, and our state has many organizations and tools to assure that people can exercise their right to vote — free of intimidation.”

Ellison then invited to the podium experts who spoke about voting in minority communities, voters who have had their civil rights restored and students who talked about voting on campus. Ellison is focusing on educating voters about their rights at the polls. TheUptake has video of the press conference:

[Story continues after video]

Illegal voting is rare in Minnesota, but EIW and tea party groups aren’t taking any chances. The conservative group Minnesota Majority launched a major initiative last year to get illegal voters prosecuted and targeted Minnesota’s two DFL strongholds — Hennepin and Ramsey counties.

Jeff Johnson, a Republican Hennepin County Commissioner, pressed county attorney Mike Freeman recently about the 899 names that Minnesota Majority submitted in 2009. That group’s allegation was that widespread voter fraud cost Republican Sen. Norm Coleman the election, a claim that was picked up by Fox News this summer.

Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman wrote back (PDF) saying that his office looked into Minnesota Majority’s accusations and found that illegal voting is rare.

“The rate of chargeable cases in Hennepin County of felons voting who have not had their rights restored in the 2008 election is .00006,” wrote Freeman. “Evidence of any other type of voter fraud was insufficient to bring any charges at all.”

His office charged 47 people with illegally voting in 2008. Seven of those came from election officials and 40 from Minnesota Majority’s data. Freeman wrote that the bulk information provided by Minnesota Majority was either insufficient or inaccurate.

In Ramsey County, 28 have been charged with illegal voting.

Despite the low number of charges, Rep. Michele Bachmann rallied the tea party effort on the Glenn Beck Show on Tuesday evening, claiming that a coordinated effort to get felons to vote helped Sen. Al Franken win the 2008 election.

“And remember we had the infamous felons for Franken program two years ago where we know that there were felons that went out and voted presumably for Al Franken,” she said. “We had more felons vote than the margin of vote victory for Al Franken. So there are over about 350 felons or 600, somewhere in that neighborhood, that were eligible to vote. We know that about 350 did vote. And Al Franken won by just barely over 300 votes.”

Freeman said his office’s investigation found no evidence of a coordinated effort to get felons to vote.

“There was no organized or coordinated effort to induce improper voting. There was no involvement of any campaign or any candidate. And there were no cases charged of non-citizens improperly voting.”

Mahamoud Wardere (in red) talks to voter at Brian Coyle Center

The Minnesota Secretary of State’s office says that if Coleman staffer Mahamoud Wardere was at Brian Coyle Center for most of the afternoon on Election Day, that Minnesota election laws were “potentially” broken. According to Beth Fraser, director of governmental affairs at the Secretary of State’s office, a translator 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.

Wardere, a paid staffer in Norm Coleman’s office whose title is listed as constituent policy liaison, was called in by two GOP challengers at the site after they told an election judge they wanted to bring in their own translator. Wardere remained onsite for at least four hours.

Minnesota statute 204C.06, regarding conduct in and near polling places, states that “no one except an election official or an individual who is waiting to register or to vote shall stand within 100 feet of the building in which a polling place is located.” Fraser says that if Wardere was there throughout the afternoon and not aiding an individual voter with translation, then it’s possible laws were broken. “That is up for the county attorney to investigate,” Fraser says. “And I do not have all the facts. But if that happened, then potentially laws were broken.”

What’s more, the GOP conceivably violated election laws by at one point having three challengers as well as Wardere on site.  After being asked by an election judge to leave, Wardere told the Minnesota Independent that neither he nor the election judge were certain if his role at Brian Coyle was to act as GOP challenger or translator. Wadere did not leave the building, and instead remained in the foyer or entrance of Brian Coyle Center for most of the afternoon. He later told MnIndy that he was only there to help voters with language issues. One GOP challenger, whose counterpart called in Wardere to act as their translator earlier that morning, refused to speak with MnIndy about allegations of voter intimidation or Wardere’s role at the site.

“Only one challenger from either party can be on site at one time,” Fraser says. And according to Minnesota statute 204C.07 regarding challengers, “[Challengers] shall not converse with a voter except to determine, in the presence of an election judge, whether the voter is eligible to vote in the precinct.” If Wardere spoke with voters while he was acting as a challenger, this is also a potential violation of the law, Fraser says.

As MnIndy reported on Tuesday, voters charged that translators on site were persuading voters to vote for Norm Coleman. According to another Minnesota statute regarding voter assistance, 204c.15, “A voter who claims a need for assistance because of inability to read English or physical inability to mark a ballot may obtain the aid of two election judges who are members of different major political parties.” And it goes on to say, “An election judge or other individual assisting a voter shall not in any manner request, persuade, induce, or attempt to persuade or induce the voter to vote for any particular political party or candidate.”

The Secretary of State’s office responds to written complaints, Fraser says, which are then forwarded to the county attorney’s office for investigation. So far, the SoS has not received complaints in writing regarding conduct at the Brian Coyle Center.

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

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.

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 below.