Minnesota officials change review process for automatic voter registration after some applications have issues
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Secretary of State's office said it updated its review process for applicants automatically registering to vote when they get their state-issued ID in order to prevent errors.
November's election is the state's largest since the automatic voter registration law passed last year and more than 65,000 people have done so since the new system took effect at the end of April. Now Minnesotans applying for or renewing their IDs who provide documentation can get registered without opting in; instead, they can choose to opt out.
About 25,500 more 16- and 17-year-olds pre-registered this way, according to the secretary of state's office, which is another new statute approved by the DFL-controlled state legislature last year.
Legislative Republicans recently raised concern about the process, seeking clarity about how the state ensures no one ineligible to cast a ballot is registered to vote during automatic voter registration.
Sen. Mark Koran, R-North Branch, said he does not oppose automatic voter registration, but worries about ineligible voters falling through the cracks now that people regardless of immigration status can get driver's licenses.
"It should be a fair and open, transparent process so citizens are assured only eligible people reside in that database," he said.
In response, Bob Jacobsen, commissioner of Department of Public Safety — which is one of the agencies overseeing automatic voter registration — wrote in a letter addressed to lawmakers explaining that the department manually reviewed more than 100,000 registration records and "out of an abundance of caution," the secretary of state's office inactivated 1% of those records "pending the confirmation of various pieces of voter registration, including address, name and citizenship."
"After a manual, two-layered review by DVS of all applicant files, DVS is not aware of anyone voting in Minnesota who was ineligible to vote," Jacobsen wrote.
He added the department is working with Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon on the rollout of automatic voter registration to "develop enhanced training and protocols that reduce the risk of human error and ensure that voter rolls are accurate."
In a news release, the secretary's office said those applicants with discrepancies or missing information may still be eligible to vote and will be notified that they will need to register to vote online, at their local election office or in-person at their polling place on Election Day.
"Moving forward [the department of vehicle services] is using two distinct staff areas to double-check all documentation at DVS before applicant files are sent to be registered to vote. DVS is also increasing training for all front-end workers who are classifying documents. Additionally, in some instances automatic voter registration was paused to allow sufficient time to review the applicant's file," the secretary's office explained.
As a result of that review and verification, Minnesotans should expect automatic voter registration processing through the new system to take as long as 12 weeks.
Koran and other Republican leaders in the legislature said the letter from Jacobsen explaining the process only raises more questions for them.
"We still don't know the answer to a simple question: Did any of these registrants vote in the August primary?," he and House MInority Leader Lisa Demuth and Senate Majority Leader Mark Johnson wrote in a statement last Friday. " Minnesotans want to trust our elections are secure and fair. They deserve to know if our election officials can even answer these questions when asked."
Twenty-four other states plus Washington, D.C., have automatic voter registration. Early voting in Minnesota begins Friday, Sept. 20.
