Eight Crow Wing County townships joined the three precincts in Unorganized Territory in converting to mail balloting for the 2020 primary and general elections.
The changes affect nearly 10,000 voters who will no longer cast their ballots at a polling place in their local jurisdiction this year — decisions made by township boards faced with concerns over how to accomplish in-person voting while practicing health and safety measures amid the coronavirus pandemic. Those decisions were required to be made by May 12 — 90 days before the August primary.
In addition to the Red, White and Blue precincts in Unorganized, voters who reside in the townships of Wolford, Long Lake, Fairfield, Bay Lake, Center, Irondale, Lake Edward and Oak Lawn will receive mail ballots this year without the need to apply for an absentee ballot. Voters in 18 precincts in the county — 2,728 of them — already cast their ballots exclusively by mail, with some doing so since as far back as 1994-96.
Voting will continue in person in the county’s remaining precincts, either by choice of local leadership or because they’re ineligible to make the change, such as those in Brainerd and Baxter. In Minnesota, cities with fewer than 400 registered voters and townships are eligible for mail balloting, provided they’re located outside the seven-county metropolitan area.
Just as all Minnesota voters have the option to vote by absentee, all those who reside in mail ballot precincts in Crow Wing County have the option to vote in person at the historic courthouse in Brainerd, if they prefer, within 45 days of the election.
“We do have some people who absolutely love it. They love the fact that the ballot comes to their house, that they have the time to research the candidates, that they can fill it out at their leisure while they are having that opportunity to know who they truly want to vote for,” said Deborah Erickson, elections head in Crow Wing County, during an interview Thursday, May 21. “We also have people who really like the polling place experience and who choose to bring their ballot into our office every year and go into the voting booth and fill out their ballot. We try to provide whatever option works the best for each voter.”
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Listen to the full interview
Deborah Erickson joined Community Editor Chelsey Perkins on the “DispatchCast,” the official podcast of the Brainerd Dispatch, to discuss mail balloting.
On the episode, Erickson — who serves in a number of elections-related capacities on the state and federal levels — shares her expertise on mail balloting and elections in general.
Visit https://bit.ly/3d0y21f to download the episode, or find “DispatchCast” on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen. The episode is also embedded below.
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Erickson said she knows some voters are skeptical of the changes, including about the security of their ballots and the integrity of elections as a result. This includes President Donald Trump, who’s repeatedly leveled unfounded criticism of the expansion of voting by mail despite having voted by mail himself in Florida’s recent primary and by absentee in previous elections. But Erickson, the more than 20-year veteran of elections administration, said the process in Minnesota is well-established, extremely secure and as close to tamper-proof as possible.
“One of the things that I think is really important for all Minnesota voters is that they should be afforded a consistent process regardless of where they go to vote, whether they go to their polling place in Long Lake Township, or they vote by mail ballot from the Unorganized Territory, or they live up by Baudette, or Lake of the Woods, or down in Minneapolis,” Erickson said. “ … You should be afforded that opportunity as a voter in Minnesota to know that your ballot’s integrity, your secrecy of your process, and the transparency of the process. To ensure that your vote is going to be counted and is going to be counted the way you intended it to be counted is the most sacred right that we have.”
How mail balloting works
For those who live in an area using mail balloting for the first time this year, the process will be new. But for Crow Wing County, it’s a matter of applying the process already in place to new precincts.
Voters should expect to receive a letter offering a date range during which their ballot will arrive in the mail. That way, Erickson said, they know to look for the ballot, and if it doesn’t arrive, they should contact Crow Wing County.
Once the ballot has arrived, the registered voter it’s intended for must have a witness available — this can be either another registered Minnesota voter or a notary public. This person must verify several pieces of information, including the voter’s identity and address and that the ballot is blank. Then, the witness must see the voter fill out the ballot themselves. The witness provides their own name and address and signs the return envelope. By doing so, they are swearing an oath stating they’ve actually taken the steps required as a witness.
The voter places the ballot in a secrecy envelope, which is placed inside the return envelope they’ve signed as well. The ballot can then be returned by mail or dropped off at the Crow Wing County Historic Courthouse. If sent by mail, voters may track the status of their ballot at mnvotes.org.
Once it arrives, elections staff are required to mark it as received in the statewide voter registration system the same day. Within five days, the return envelope must be inspected by two election judges working as a team, each representing a different major political party. These judges ensure the voter who signed the return envelope matches the name on the mailing label, the address label hasn’t been altered, the witness completed their information correctly and whether the two signatures are noticeably different from one another.
If the ballot is accepted, it remains inside the envelope and is locked in a vault. If rejected for failing to meet any of these requirements, the county is required to mail a replacement ballot to the voter. This will be accompanied by a letter explaining the reason the ballot was rejected along with a photocopy of the envelope. If it’s close to Election Day, Erickson said they will also call voters to let them know they can come in person to fill out a new ballot.
“Who they voted for is never part of the conversation or how they voted their ballot or even what their ballot looks like is never part of the consideration or conversation of the election judges. The election judges who do the accepting or rejecting never actually see the ballots themselves,” Erickson said.
When it’s 14 days before Election Day, tabulation of votes may begin. Secrecy envelopes are removed from the return envelopes, physically mixed up to ensure there’s no way to know which ballot belonged to which voter. The ballots are then fed into voting machines. The results themselves remain unknown until after the polls close, the same as for those who vote in person and feed their ballots into machines at the polling place.
Safeguards
Hacking, ballot harvesting, fraud — these are some of the anxieties voters may have as they participate in a new way to cast their ballots.
Erickson said the state of Minnesota has a number of safeguards built into its system to ensure ballot integrity, and chief among these is the use of paper ballots.
“That’s a narrative that people are hearing, that somebody’s trying to steal the election, regardless of which side. … I think the safeguards that we have put in place are proven through the fact that this has been being done for over 20 years,” she said. “There is a proven methodology, there are checks and balances in the system. We are utilizing election judges that are representing two or three or four of the major political parties. And elections are still done at a local level.
“So if we are using election judges from your polling places, from your precincts to process those ballots, oftentimes they’re your friends, they’re your neighbors. You still know who these people are that are doing that process. They are signing an oath.”
Internet connectivity is not allowed by law in any polling place in Minnesota, and there is no centralized database in which results are submitted that would be accessible to hackers. At most, Erickson said, a hacker could possibly change unofficial results posted by the secretary of state’s office on Election Day, but that would do nothing to change the actual outcome of an election.
The day after an election takes place, canvassing boards are required to convene and certify results. This involves randomly drawing two precincts and hand-counting the votes for three offices on those ballots — again, using election judges representing different political parties. The process is also open to the public and is typically observed by party representatives.
As for ballot harvesting, which is the collection of mail or absentee ballots by volunteers or workers, Erickson said this cannot occur in Minnesota. Concerns arise with this practice because some people believe it offers the opportunity to illegally influence voters to select one party over another. But in Minnesota, an authorized agent can only return ballots for up to three people and the county is required to keep a log of each ballot returned by an agent.
Voter fraud, such as impersonating a voter or voting on behalf of someone who’s died, is another issue raised by those who have discomfort with mail balloting. Erickson said impersonating a voter is much more difficult than it sounds, given all the security measures in place, and extremely rare. Voter rolls are daily checked against death receipts from the Minnesota Department of Health. Those who don’t vote after four years must register again.
“There are safeguards and preventions in place that are allowed through law, that are prevented through rules, that are provided for every Minnesotan as part of that process, and our job is to make sure that those are all upheld and everybody’s sacred right to vote is afforded to them as well,” Erickson said.
Questions?
Crow Wing County prepared a frequently asked questions document for those who want to know more about mail balloting. Visit https://bit.ly/2ZxLCWf to view that list. For more information, call 218-824-1051 or email elections@crowwing.us.
Listen to the full interview
Deborah Erickson joined Community Editor Chelsey Perkins on the “DispatchCast,” the official podcast of the Brainerd Dispatch, to discuss mail balloting.
On the episode, Erickson — who serves in a number of elections-related capacities on the state and federal levels — shares her expertise on mail balloting and elections in general.
Visit https://bit.ly/3d0y21f to download the episode, or find “DispatchCast” on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen.
