Tag: Secretary of State Simon

Tensions over Minnesota election outcome on display as Senate panel meets

At GOP-led hearing on election integrity, Secretary of State Steve Simon warns of ‘disinformation.’ 

Disinformation and conspiracy theories about this year’s vote are a danger to election workers and democracy itself, Minnesota Secretary of State Simon warned Tuesday at a state Senate hearing called to examine the election’s integrity.

With the presidential race’s outcome under continued but unsuccessful legal attack by President Donald Trump and allies, Republican state Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer of Big Lake raised questions about pandemic-driven changes to Minnesota’s voting procedures that have since been the subject of court wrangling.

Still, Kiffmeyer, a former secretary of state and frequent critic of Simon, said in a subsequent press release that “so far, claims of widespread fraud have not held up under scrutiny or in the courts.” Continue reading.

Minnesota panel signs off on election results, says voting system clean

Simon finds “no credible allegations” of fraud in vote. 

Minnesota’s top election officials signed off on the results of this year’s vote on Tuesday, giving the state’s process a clean bill of health even as a group of Republicans filed a last-minute legal challenge.

“Our voting equipment is incredibly accurate and the postelection review in front of you proves that,” David Maeda, the state’s director of elections, told members of the five-person state canvassing board led by Secretary of State Steve Simon, which met to make official the outcome of the Nov. 3 vote.

Despite unprecedented challenges presented by the pandemic, Maeda reported that a random audit of precincts in all 87 counties failed to show a level of irregularities that would have, by law, triggered a full-county recount anywhere.

That’s never happened since the state began that form of post-election testing in 2006, Maeda added. Continue reading.

Federal judges order Minnesota’s post-Election Day ballots to be held

Minn. votes received after 8 p.m. Election Day to be set aside for possible challenge. 

A federal court sided Thursday with a GOP challenge to Minnesota’s extended deadline for receiving absentee ballots after Election Day, imperiling a state rule that would count mail-in ballots received up to a week after Tuesday’s election.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges ordered that all mail-in ballots received after 8 p.m. on Election Day be set aside, setting the stage for a potential legal battle after the election. But the order stopped short of a final determination on the validity of the post-Election Day ballots.

The ruling came in a case brought by Minnesota GOP presidential electors challenging a state rule allowing election officials to count ballots received until Nov. 10, as long as they are postmarked by Nov. 3. It is one of several Republican challenges to extended deadlines that were adopted in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina in response to concerns about the pandemic and potential mail delays. Continue reading.

Secretary of State Steve Simon on the End of the Legislative Session

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA — Secretary of State Steve Simon issued the following statement regarding the end of the special legislative session:

“The next statewide election begins in 238 days,” said Secretary of State Simon. “As of today, the legislature has agreed to authorize the full $6.6 million in HAVA funding to my office so that we can further secure Minnesota’s elections. We have been preparing for this day for more than a year and I am grateful to the legislative leaders who saw the wisdom in getting this done before our next statewide elections, particularly the bipartisan leadership in the House from Representatives Nelson, Dehn, O’Driscoll, and Nash. Thank you.

“The legislature also agreed to take important steps to protect voter privacy for the 2020 Presidential Nominating Primary contest. Thanks to the leadership of Representative Halverson, presidential primary voters no longer have to worry about their party choice being made available to the voting public. Though my preference has always been to keep ballot choice private, compromise on this issue – to make data available only to the major political parties – is largely consistent with what would have been available under the traditional caucus system. Continue reading “Secretary of State Steve Simon on the End of the Legislative Session”

Phillips to Host Community Conversation on H.R.1

 

Rep. Dean Phillips will host a free and open-to-the-public community conversation focused on H.R. 1, the For the People Act, a sweeping campaign finance, ethics, and electoral reform package he sponsored on his first day in Congress.

COMMUNITY CONVERSATION ON H.R. 1 – THE “FOR THE PEOPLE ACT”

WHEN:  Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Doors Open: 6:15 PM
Events Start: 6:30 PM

WHERE:  Hopkins High School Little Theater, 2400 Lindbergh Dr, Minnetonka, MN 55305

WHO:

Rep. Dean Phillips (MN-03)
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon
Tiffany Muller, President, End Citizens United
Prof. David Schultz, Hamline University

Will Your Vote be Hacked?

The following article by Britt Robson was posted on the University of Minnesota Alumni Association website as part of their Fall, 2018 issue:

Not while alumnus and Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon stands between voters and danger.

Credit: Mark Luinenburg

Most any Minnesota voter would recognize the thing perched in a corner of Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon’s office on the ground floor of the State Office Building adjoining the Capitol in St. Paul. It seems to be an ordinary voting booth, constructed of standard-issue blue and white plastic on metal legs, with three walls for privacy and a flat surface on which to lay your ballot.

But the voting surface in this booth is disheveled, with white paper dots littered around an open booklet. “This is from Broward County,” says Simon meaningfully.  Continue reading “Will Your Vote be Hacked?”

Minnesota election chief skeptical of Trump panel’s voter information request

The following article by Erin Golden was posted on the StarTribune website June 30, 2017:

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said Thursday that he’s “troubled” by a sweeping request from President Donald Trump’s Election Integrity Commission for detailed information about every voter in all 50 states, and he made no guarantee he will comply with it.

Simon said in an interview that his office is reviewing legal issues raised by the request for full voter roll data, including the name, address, party affiliation, last four digits of Social Security numbers and voting history back to 2006 of potentially every voter in every state.

“They’re asking for a lot of stuff, and it’s a lot of personal stuff, on literally millions of people in Minnesota,” Simon said.

A DFLer, Simon said he’s concerned that the Republican officials overseeing the commission, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and Vice President Mike Pence, have been what he called “loud and proud” in their support of Trump’s sensational claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2016 election.

“This has the look and feel to me of a sort of precooked, predetermined outcome,” Simon said. Continue reading “Minnesota election chief skeptical of Trump panel’s voter information request”