Despite all evidence to the contrary, rumors persist that the 2020 Presidential election was rife with voter fraud.
This past summer, the state director of elections, David Maeda, addressed the Rice County Board of Commissioners to assure the people of Rice County that the elections across the state, and in Rice County itself, are sound. Maeda even singled out the County Director of Property Tax and Elections, Denise Anderson, as a great example of the high-quality people who are in charge of elections around the state.
Last week, with an important election day approaching in just under two months, Rice County Attorney John Fossum echoed Maeda’s sentiments, saying he believes Minnesota uses the “gold standard,” when it comes to running an election.
“We use paper ballots, and an optical reader,” he said. “That way there is a record of the vote, and the paper ballots can be reviewed against the optical reader report, and votes can be confirmed.”
All the equipment used by the county is certified by the Secretary of State’s office, he said. And a public demonstration of that equipment has been made in order to re-assure voters.
He said there have been a handful of cases where his office has charged someone with wrongful voting, but that has usually involved someone convicted of a felony registering to vote and then doing so. Convicted felons are not allowed to vote in Minnesota, however the state Supreme Court is currently reviewing a challenge to that law.
Fossum said the county continues to receive data practice requests from people who are investigating the alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election, and his office tries to process those requests as quickly as possible.
“Our office reviews those and turns them around as quickly as we can. Sometimes people are asking for things that don’t exist, and then they get frustrated because [they have to be told that what they are looking for doesn’t] exist. But we can’t generate data. We can only provide the data that we have and that our Director of Property Tax and Elections has.”
Election day is Tuesday, November 8th.
