St. Louis County officials are investigating allegations that nearly 60 convicted felons who were ineligible to vote participated in the 2008 general election, according to the Minnesota Voters Alliance.
The group held a news conference this afternoon outside the county courthouse in Duluth to call attention to what they believe is voter fraud. The work to create the list of 59 people was done by Minnesota Majority, according to Steve Townsend, Duluth, vice president of the St. Paul-based Minnesota Voters Alliance.
"They went through the state system to see who actually voted and then cross referenced that with the records of ineligible voters and they came up with 59 names," he said. "It looks like the majority are on felony probation."
A similar investigation in Hennepin County found 110 voters who potentially were ineligible to vote in 2008. So far six of those voters have been charged with fraud.
According to the county auditor's office, 119,434 people voted in St. Louis County in the Nov. 4, 2008, general election.
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Patricia Stolee, St. Louis County director of elections, said she had the list and that every person on it would be investigated. She said she had done some preliminary research on two of the people involved and in both cases neither had ever voted in St. Louis County before 2008, so they wouldn't have appeared on local lists of ineligible voters.
More investigation would be needed to determine whether they had committed voter fraud, she said.
Secretary of State Mark Ritchie contends too much attention has been focused during the campaign on rare voter fraud. He said some of the biggest voting problems come from felons still on probation who vote although they cannot legally do so. Many of them were never told they cannot vote, Ritchie said.
Monday's news conference also focused on an effort to recruit poll watchers statewide for the Nov. 2 election. Called Election Integrity Watch, it's a joint effort coordinated by Minnesota Majority, Minnesota Voters Alliance and North Star Tea Party Patriots.
"We want people to watch, record and report (suspicious behavior)," said Townsend. "Don't confront."
