Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie on Friday announced that his legislative proposals would strengthen Minnesota's election system by making use of state and federal databases. Technological advances would allow the state to largely prevent those who are not eligible from registering or voting before elections take place.
"Individuals who are not eligible to vote should not be registered or able to cast ballots. The legislation passed by the House State and Local Government Committee yesterday would authorize our office to use a variety of federal and state databases to ensure that our elections laws are enforced," Ritchie explained.
The legislation Ritchie proposes would allow the Office of the Secretary of State to compare new voter registration applicants against the Minnesota Department of Corrections' list of felons, so that ineligible individuals can be identified and flagged. It would also give legal authority to this office to compare the statewide voter registration list against the Social Security death registry to identify Minnesota voters who died while outside of the state. Finally, the legislation gives authority to the Office of the Secretary of State to check the citizenship status of voters using data maintained by the Department of Public Safety.
"This is not a new issue, but we are taking a new approach to it. For example, historical data indicates that 70 felons may have voted in the 2004 presidential elections and 61 may have voted in 2008. I do not know what action was taken in 2004, but under my administration, we have moved swiftly to notify county attorneys of all individuals who may have voted illegally and they are now investigating each incident. These types of cross-checks would make it easier to prevent those who are not eligible from casting a ballot in the first place" added Ritchie.
The proposed measures are part of the office's comprehensive legislative package to modernize voter registration, which is currently moving through the legislature as House File 1053 and Senate File 660. For the complete text of the proposed legislation.
