State elections officials have been invited to an election preparation meeting later this month with the FBI, the Postal Service and the U.S. Justice and Homeland Security departments.
While such meetings have not raised concern in the past, just last week President Trump urged Republicans to take over elections in several states ahead of the midterms, floating the idea of nationalizing elections.
Longtime Ramsey County elections manager Joe Mansky, now retired, joined Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition Tuesday to talk about the strength of Trump’s argument and what actions Minnesota can take to shore up election protections.
Mansky helped author Minnesota election laws. With the state Legislature convening in a week, he said there are some actions lawmakers could take, including creating an electronic poll book using driver’s license photos so that “the election officials can identify you immediately as soon as you walk in, without actually having the voter do anything.”
“I would suggest that the Legislature should consider the possibility of having the secretary of state or the county auditors, or both, do some sort of a review of voter records either prior to Election Day or after Election Day, to verify that people are, in fact, U.S. citizens,” Mansky added.
However, Mansky isn’t confident that President Donald Trump will follow through on his suggestion.
“I take whatever the President of the United States says seriously in respect for the office that he holds. But let’s face it, after five years, we kind of know how he is using messaging to troll the public and his political opponents and so on,” Mansky said. “My advice for our fellow Minnesotans is take a lot of this with a grain of salt, that a lot of this is performative. It’s never going to happen.”
Legally, Congress would have to pass a law to change election processes.
Listen to the full conversation by clicking the player button above.