Minnesota Secretary of State provides media briefing ahead of start of primary voting

On Thursday, June 27, the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State will be providing a briefing to the press about the start of absentee voting for the Aug. 13, Primary.

The event was intended to provide updates on election security, election worker recruitment and voter outreach initiatives. State officials, including Minnesota Secretary of State Steven Simon, gathered and started by addressing new changes and old guidelines that voters could expect when they vote in the upcoming primary.

One noticeable change is to voter tools, which now allow voters to translate the online voter tools website to be displayed in 11 different languages.

Simon said that while the language may be different on the mnvotes.gov website, the same rules will apply for being eligible to vote, such as being a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years old or older, a resident of Minnesota for at least 20 days, and not currently being incarcerated for a felony conviction.

As the son of an Austrian immigrant, Simon said these translation tools were an issue that hit close to home for him.

“I grew up in a bilingual household, and I know how this works in the real world,” Simon said. “My mother was a fluent, almost accent-free English speaker. She could talk about any subject with anyone, but when it came to technical instructions of any kind…my mom wanted that stuff in her native language that’s how I think all of us are wired.”

Simon also pointed to the state’s historical past of providing translated documents for election instructions, such as a Norweigen-language document about voting he displayed Thursday that showcases a tradition of providing foreign language tools since 1896.

Other changes include Minnesotans being able to request to be placed on a permanent absentee voter list, which allows voters to vote at home rather than go to an election site. All eligible voters can be placed on the list so long as they mark the option when registering to vote on mnvotes.gov. Voters can also choose to leave the permanent list by written request to their county elections office or be removed in the event of their death, if their ballot is undeliverable, or if their voter status changes to challenged or inactive.

Minnesota also restored voting rights to individuals who are non longer incarcerated in 2023, allowing more than 55,000 Minnesotans to vote in the upcoming primary.

When it comes to security, Simon said the primary is being treated just as seriously when it comes to procedure as any other election. This includes administrators in every county, city and township must hold a public accuracy test in which election equipment is tested in a public meeting. Another security measure is a two-tiered post-election review, the first an audit done by local governments, while the second tier is a review done by the Secretary of State Office. Thos audits are also available to be seen in real time by the public.

Bill Ekblad, Election Security Navigator, also elaborated on the organization’s approach to ensuring a secure election in Minnesota. Ekblad said the approach is founded on partnerships with critical partners at the federal, state, and local levels.

“We’ve been focusing on in-person interaction with as many partners as we can,” Ekblad said. “Our team….have been out on the road visiting counties, sitting down and talking to those local election officials, understanding their concerns about threats and worries heading into the election event of the year ahead and making them aware of all the different resources and help that is available to them.”

Additional details on the voting and election process in Minnesota can be found on mnvotes.gov. The video above plays back the live stream, or you can click here to watch it again.