Decision Day 2024: Stearns County Officials Attest to Election and Voting Security

(KNSI) – As Minnesotans head to the polls on Election Day, county officials say residents can be assured their ballot is secure.

Election security has been a hot topic in the last two cycles and is again this year, especially in the wake of an Itasca County woman being accused of filling out a ballot for her dead mother.

Stearns County Elections Supervisor Roxanne Gerads told KNSI News why fraud is pretty easy to catch. “If a voter passes away, we get a weekly report from the Department of Health, and we go into the state voter registration system and mark them as deceased.”

She says that person’s ballot will be pulled as long as it wasn’t processed. After the ballot is removed from its envelope, it can no longer be traced to the voter for privacy purposes.

Counties can start to process early votes and put them in counting machines up to 18 days before the election; however, they can’t be counted until the polls close. The voting machines are also kept under lock and key, and as Stearns County Auditor-Treasurer Randy Schreifels explains, the voting machines are extensively tested. “We do a pre-test, and then we do a public accuracy test. Everything has to work out to the number. There can be no variance there. The precincts also test their machines. They do that twice.”

He adds on election night, they always verify that the number of voters equals the number of ballots. Anytime votes are handled, two election judges from different parties watch them, and must seal the container and escort them into the county service center.

“Once they’re here, there certainly are procedures that we gather all the supplies, we put them in locked rooms. The rooms only have access by certain people, only election staff,” said Schreifels.

Not only are the accepted ballots accounted for, but the unused and spoiled ballots are counted, too. A ballot is considered spoiled when it’s mismarked or a mistake is made and a voter needs to fill out a new one.

Election materials are kept for 22 months in case of a recount or challenge. In the days after the election, the county canvasses the results and conducts a post-election review to ensure that everything worked as it should.

If someone has voted early, it is marked in the state voter registration system. A new Minnesota law allows homeless people to vote simply by describing where they live. That person will need someone to vouch for them. If a person tries to vote twice, they will get busted; however, it could be months after the election before that fraud is found. In that case, the voter and voucher would face multiple felonies.

Election officials say the most common fraud was felons voting before their rights were restored. Minnesota now allows convicted felons to vote as long as they are not behind bars.

Nearly 20,000 of Stearns County’s 94,000 registered voters cast a ballot early.

The polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Anyone in line by 8:00 will be allowed to vote.

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