Controversy Brews as Collegeville Township Moves Towards Mail-In Balloting

(KNSI) — Some voters are upset after the Collegeville Township board passed a resolution asking the county to allow them to switch to mail-in balloting.

The Stearns County Auditor-Treasurer’s office granted the proposal for precinct one, which covers around 1,600 voters. That has angered residents like James Klein, who felt the change came out of nowhere. “We were blindsided. Something is going on that is beyond our control. We weren’t given fair warning to try to rectify the situation or do anything about it. So, we really feel blindsided by this.”

Klein worries mail-in balloting will increase the likelihood of fraud. “There are a lot of us who do not believe mail-in balloting is safe. And so, we’re wondering why we were forced into this when none of ‘we the people from Collegeville Township want that,’ or no one that I know of anyway.”

He wants to revert to in-person voting. As it stands now, the only place they can vote in person on election day is at the Stearns County Service Center in Waite Park.

Klein is asking everyone who opposes the plan to express their thoughts at the next township meeting, which will be held at 7:00 p.m. on April 30th in the town hall.

An email sent to KNSI News from Township Supervisor and Chairman John Ronning explained they took this path after the current clerk of 18 years, Joe Pohl, announced four months ago he wouldn’t seek another term or work another election. Ronning says the reasons were because of false accusations of election fraud against him and local election judges, the amount of work, and the pay wasn’t even close to what the clerk’s time is worth.

Ronning reported that recently, they’ve come across someone who will be the head election judge and is willing to get tutored by the current clerk so they can run in the next election.

The county said Collegeville Township could reverse the decision if it’s done before May 15th. The topic will be discussed at the April 30th meeting. Ronning ended his statement by saying he can’t speak for the other supervisor, but he is personally against the mail-in voting and would like to see it go back to in-person.

Precinct two covers Saint John’s University. The county wouldn’t allow the change there due to the complexities of college kids voting since they aren’t in school during the primary election but are in school during the general election. As a result, the school must provide election judges with a list of students who live on campus to ensure they can vote there. Many incoming students will also register to vote on election day, making it almost impossible to do mail-in balloting on campus.

According to Stearns County’s election office, mail-in ballots will be sent to every registered voter no more than 46 days before an election and no later than 14 days. The county gets a list of the deceased every week from the Minnesota Department of Health, and that list is used to purge names from the voter rolls and for a variety of county functions. Any person who mails in their ballot and then dies at least 18 days before the election will also have their ballot not counted.

The county has been using mail-in balloting for decades in the cities of Elrosa, Greenwald, Lake Henry, Meire Grove, New Munich, Roscoe, Spring Hill, St. Anthony, and St. Rosa and the townships of Crow Lake, Crow River, Farming, Getty, Grove, Lake George, Lake Henry, Melrose, Munson, North Fork, Oak, and Spring Hill.

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