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Simon: Minn. needs more mail voting, election judges come Election Day

Simon emphasized the state’s approach to curbing the spread of COVID-19 and ensuring a secure, fair election will center around bolstering two aspects of the upcoming elections — the number of absentee ballots submitted and the number of people who sign up to be election judges.

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Photo illustration by Metro Newspaper Service

Crow Wing County, the state of Minnesota and the rest of the country are gearing up for Election Day in what’s been a tumultuous and unusual 2020.

During a Zoom conference call, Thursday, July 9, with the Brainerd Lakes Area League of Women Voters, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and Crow Wing County Administrative Services Director Deborah Erickson said the state is taking significant steps to ensure the security of the election process, as well as the health of voters, during the unpredictability of the coronavirus. Election officials are planning for the Aug. 11 primaries and the Nov. 3 general election.

“This pandemic has tested so many segments of our society, and it's testing our democracy as well. And so we, too, have to adapt and do things a little bit differently,” Simon said. “None of us on this call knows what the world is going to look like on Nov. 3. We don't even really know what it's going to look like on Aug. 11.”

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Steve Simon, Minnesota secretary of state

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With roughly 1,000 polling locations across the state and an estimated voter turnout of roughly 3 million people, Simon said the goal is to reduce COVID-19 infections as much as possible if any semblance of a traditional election is to take place. If that’s not the case — which at this time seems a real possibility, he noted — then the state needs to lean on mail-in ballots, stringent mask requirements for both voters and poll workers, as well as a number of preventative measures like Plexiglas shields, hand sanitizer, wipes and social distancing to avoid a COVID-19 spike.

RELATED: 8 more Crow Wing County townships to vote by mail this year
Simon said Gov. Tim Walz may be compelled to order a mask mandate, which may force poll workers to turn voters away if they don’t follow this guideline.

“You don't have to be an expert to realize we have to get that number (of COVID-19 infections) down to have 1,000 people and their droplets circulating in what could be relatively close quarters and a 13-hour period on Election Day,” Simon said. “That’s nobody’s idea of an ideal.”

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Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon and Crow Wing County Administrative Services Director Deborah Erickson joined the Brainerd Lakes Area League of Women Voters during a Zoom conference Thursday, July 9, to discuss election security and health measures on Election Day Nov. 3. Screenshot by Gabriel Lagarde

Simon emphasized the state’s approach to curbing the spread of COVID-19 and ensuring a secure, fair election will center around bolstering two aspects of the upcoming elections — the number of absentee ballots submitted and the number of people who sign up to be election judges.

Simon said all citizens can serve as election judges — including minors aged 16-17 years old — and these positions aren’t limited to local precincts with the exception of these same 16- to 17-year-olds. Applications and job details can be found at tinyurl.com/y75nbqyn .

Simon pointed to chaotic aspects of the Wisconsin, Georgia and Kentucky elections this year and noted they were largely rooted in a shortage of staffed polling places. In turn, Erickson noted Crow Wing County alone needs about 500 election judges at minimum and the state is advocating an additional two positions per polling place. She noted the county is looking to enlist a further 100 judges, with training to be conducted online, and participants can be expected to be paid in the $15 to $20 range, depending on the precinct.

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Crow Wing County Administrative Services Director Deborah Erickson
Crow Wing County Administrative Services Director Deborah Erickson

Simon said municipalities have to prepare a “reserve force” of trained staffers to fill in, in the event the standard 30,000 statewide polling workers drops to 25,000 or 20,000 or less, for whatever reason.

While serving as an election judge is framed as a civic duty, Simon said voters need to see voting by absentee is also a civic duty to protect their fellow citizens. All Minnesota voters have been eligible to vote by absentee without an excuse since 2013, he noted. As such, people need to register to vote as soon as possible, he said — particularly people who have recently moved into a new address — and any voter can have absentee ballots sent to them, simply by filling out a short application at https://tinyurl.com/m88kd92 .

Each mail ballot — either absentee or if a precinct is voting by mail — will include specific identification information and a signed affidavit so as to avoid voter fraud. Voters can receive mail-in ballots if they do not have a conventional mailing address, such as a post office box.

“Do it now,” Simon said. “Do it July, do it in August, maybe do it in September, but don’t wait until October.”

In terms of security, both Erickson and Simon noted absentee ballots and mail ballots have been a trusted, tried and true form of voting going back decades. Five states in the union utilize mail ballots as a cornerstone method of voting, where all voters are sent a mail-in ballot. Nearly 1 out of 4 Minnesotans voted by mail in 2018, so it’s not uncharted territory if the fall elections need to feature a significant amount of mail ballots.

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Simon criticized President Donald Trump’s handling of the issue. He said the president’s prior opposition to universal, statewide mail ballot initiatives has been conflated to opposition to any mail ballots.

Erickson observed using mail ballots may mean the counting and verification process is more complicated, so voters should be ready to wait a little longer than usual to see the preliminary results of the election. This is not a problem, she noted, but a function of a secure and accurate election.

In an attempt to free up more election judges, Erickson said 11 voting precincts in Crow Wing County have opted to switch to mail-in only for the 2020 election, which means an additional 12,000 votes will be tabulated via this method on top of the 18 precincts that already vote by mail.

GABRIEL LAGARDE may be reached at gabe.lagarde@brainerddispatch.com or 218-855-5859. Follow at www.twitter.com/glbrddispatch .

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