Minn. Majority Wants ACLU To Pay Up
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Minnesota Majority claims that it's found proof of voter impersonation in Minnesota. And Executive Director Dan McGrath says it's time to pay up.
On Feb. 13, the ACLU offered a $1,000 wager from their "Vote No 2012 Fund" that there hasn't been a single case of voter impersonation in Minnesota in the last 10 years.
Minnesota Majority, the government watchdog group involved in looking into fraud says it's proved the ACLU-MN wrong and asked to collect on the bet.
"The ACLU of Minnesota asked for evidence of a voter impersonation charge, indictment or conviction. We've completed that research for them and are providing them court documents that clearly show a charged case of one voter fraudulently voting in the name of another in the 2008 election," McGrath said.
McGrath said the case in question was not easy to locate because the deal the court cut with the defendant kept the records somewhat obscured. The voter charged was an Andover resident who voted once in person using her own name and also completed a forged absentee ballot in an apparent variation of her daughter's name. The daughter was away at college and also voted in her college precinct.
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Election officials detected the apparent duplicate vote and contacted the daughter who denied voting twice. Eventually, the mother was contacted and admitted that it was she who completed the absentee ballot in her daughter's name.
The Andover woman was charged with three felonies, but was sentenced only to temporary probation and was ordered to repay the costs of her prosecution.
"The moral of the story is, that if you look for voter fraud in Minnesota, you'll find it. This is a clear-cut case of voter impersonation," McGrath said. "It's unusual that it was caught, because ordinarily there's no connection to be made between a false identity and the actual voter. In this case, there was a connection to be made."
Minnesota Majority plans to contribute the $1,000 reward to the Vote Yes for Voter ID campaign, or to furthering their research into election integrity issues.
Chuck Samuelson from the Minnesota ACLU responded to the prize claim. He said voter fraud is not a problem in the state of Minnesota.
He said he will review the claim, and let Minnesota Majority know whether it will pay up on April 5.
