Top Minn. election official says system is sound

Secretary of State Ritchie
Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie announcing a visit by the Declaration of Independence to the state in May.
MPR Photo/Tom Weber

Minnesota's top election official says there's no widespread voter fraud occurring in the state.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie says Minnesota's election system is the best in the nation.

Ritchie was responding to a group alleging widespread problems with Minnesota's voter registration records.

He says the system is designed to catch ineligible voters by crosschecking voter registrations with driver's license records, sending postcards that can't be forwarded to verify voters' addresses and flagging voters who must prove their eligibility to vote at the polls.

Create a More Connected Minnesota

MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.

Starting next week, Ritchie says his office will check the voter rolls using driver's license records for immigrants on time-limited visas to find ineligible non-citizens who are registered to vote.

Minnesota law makes it a felony for an ineligible person to vote intentionally.

-

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)