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.