State officials and legal experts are sounding the alarm over efforts by the Trump administration that they say could make it harder for Minnesotans to vote in the upcoming midterm elections.
Those efforts could include using immigration status to determine voter eligibility and deploying federal agents to polling places, legal experts said at a state Senate hearing on Thursday.
Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon has repeatedly said the state has one of the most secure election systems in the nation. But the experts testifying before the Senate Elections Committee urged lawmakers to prepare.
Voter disenfranchisement
Jess Marsden of Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan organization that aims to prevent authoritarianism through preserving democracy, said election interference isn’t limited to the election process itself. Elections can also be impacted by the use of government power to silence critics, the use of violent force against protesters, attempts to prosecute political opponents and the withholding government funding — all tactics that have been directed at Minnesota by the Trump administration, she said.
“Admirably, Minnesotans have refused to be silenced,” Marsden said. “But unfortunately, it’s reasonable to be concerned about how these tactics will be scaled up as the election approaches.”
One of those efforts is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. The bill requires eligible voters to provide proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or U.S. passport, to register, and a photo ID, such as a drivers license, to vote. U.S. House Republicans, and one Democrat, passed the bill on Feb. 11. It faces a tougher path in the Senate.
Lara Nott, director of voting rights policy with the Campaign Legal Center, said the SAVE Act is framed as an effort to prevent noncitizens from voting, but noncitizen voting is already illegal in federal and state elections.
“So the real question is, what would this legislation accomplish that existing criminal penalties cannot?” Nott told lawmakers. “The answer is that it could disenfranchise millions of eligible citizens who do not have ready access to the proof that the bill requires.”
Nott said 146 million U.S. citizens do not have passports, and 21 million lack easy access to documents like birth certificates, making it more difficult for them to register to vote if the SAVE Act passes. She also cited leaks last week that show administration officials are drafting an executive order falsely claiming China interfered with the 2020 election and plan to invoke a national emergency to gain powers that would allow the federal government to seize control of state-run elections.
That, along with comments from Trump that the bill would help Republicans win every election for the next 50 years and a pledge to enact the legislation without congressional approval if the vote fails, make it clear the goal is not election integrity but consolidation of political power, she said.
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Voter intimidation
Another concern shared by those testifying at the hearing was the suggestion by Trump and his supporters that federal agents could be deployed to polling places. Amid Operation Metro Surge, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi also sent a letter to Gov. Tim Walz in January that linked the deployment of thousands of ICE agents to Minnesota with demands for the Justice Department to gain access to the state’s voter rolls.
The presence of armed law enforcement could have a chilling effect on voter turnout, as well as on election judges’ willingness to do the job, Marsden said.
“The threat of ICE presence at the polls, much less their actual deployment, is likely to make many citizens, particularly naturalized citizens and people of color, think twice about going to participate in political activities or to cast their ballots,” she said.
Under current law, it’s illegal to deploy armed law enforcement to polling places unless requested by election officials. Despite a rising number of threats against election officials, Simon, the secretary of state, said he expects the midterm elections to be safe and fair.
“The U.S. Supreme Court once said that states have a legitimate interest in adopting state laws that make polling places an ‘oasis of calm,’” Simon said. “Minnesota’s laws have been built with bipartisan cooperation over decades to ensure that voters are able to cast their ballot on election day in just such an oasis of calm.”
The committee also heard a bill from DFL Sen. Bonnie Westlin of Plymouth, the committee chair, that would increase criminal penalties for election intimidation and interference from a gross misdemeanor to a felony, and the current $1,000 civil penalty to $10,000.
Westlin echoed Simon, calling Minnesota’s voting system exceptional. But, she said, her bill — which passed out of the committee unanimously on Thursday — will ensure residents feel comfortable casting their ballot.
“I think it’s important that we continue to indicate that in the state of Minnesota, certainly, we have a really exceptional voting system,” Westlin said. “You should be able to [vote] without fear of intimidation, interference … and that our election officials know that we value the incredible work that they do for our communities every election cycle.”
