With Minnesota’s Aug. 11 primary election approaching, the Pioneer Press asked the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office to address concerns about election integrity, many of which often circulate online.

Claims often range from voting by non-citizens, voting machine manipulation to mail-in ballots being vulnerable to tampering. While a small number of people have been charged with election-related crimes, overall investigations have found no evidence that widespread election fraud has occurred in state or federal elections.

A review by Minnesota’s Office of the Legislative Auditor found that the state’s voter registration system is largely effective at verifying voter registration records but found areas for improvement.Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, the state’s chief election official, and staff in his office recently addressed a number of the concerns. Simon addressed voter ID during a June 25 news conference, while the remaining responses were provided by his office via email.

Below are the office’s answers, edited for length and clarity.

Q: Minnesota does not require voters to present identification at polling places to vote. What prevents someone from voting on behalf of someone else?

A: Simon said to register to vote, residents must first provide documentation to prove they are who they say they are and live where they say they live. Those accepted documents are listed on the Secretary of State website.

Minnesota law requires extensive checks in the Statewide Voter Registration System to ensure only eligible voters receive ballots and only one ballot is counted per voter, including the verification of state-issued identification card numbers and the last four Social Security numbers.

Simon acknowledged that voter impersonation would be one instance of voter fraud that voter ID would tackle; however, he can’t recall a single allegation of that happening since he started the job in 2015.

“It’s just not something you see someone willing to risk a felony to be able to cast a vote in someone else’s name,” said Paul Linnell, the Secretary of State’s elections director.

This current system, Simon said, does a good job of blending election access and security.

Q: What safeguards are in place to prevent non-citizens from voting? Are there documented cases of that in Minnesota?

A: Minnesota uses the Statewide Voter Registration System to track every voter registration application. The system regularly matches voter information against state and federal databases to verify eligibility. Voters must also swear under oath that they are U.S. citizens when they register and again when they vote, and registering or voting while ineligible is a felony.

The office said documented cases of non-citizens voting in Minnesota are extremely rare. It said most involve people with legal residency who misunderstood their eligibility to vote.

They also cited a 2024 University of St. Thomas legal study that identified only three convictions between 2015 and 2024 for noncitizen-voting-related offenses, when more than 13.4 million ballots were cast.

Q: Does voting by mail create opportunities for fraud?

A: Voters must provide identifying information to request a ballot, and each request is tracked through the Statewide Voter Registration System, the office said. Ballots can be tracked throughout the mailing process by both voters and election officials.

Returned ballots must include a witness signature under oath and are verified by a bipartisan team of election judges before they are counted. Election officials also maintain a documented chain of custody, and ballots are stored in secure locations with limited access.

The office said documented cases of absentee ballot fraud in Minnesota are rare, but pointed to a 2024 case in which a woman was convicted of submitting a mail ballot in her deceased mother’s name. As part of her sentence, a judge ordered her to read a book about democracy and write an essay on the importance of voting.

Q: How can voters be confident that electronic voting systems can’t be manipulated or hacked?

A: Federal and state experts certify election equipment, like ballot-marking devices and tabulators, the office said.

Electronic ballot tabulators are the machines that voters place their ballots in at the polling place. They have been in use in Minnesota for decades. The office said they have been proven to be more accurate and efficient than any other method of tabulating election results.

Ballot-marking devices are available for voters who have challenges holding a pen. These devices create a paper ballot that the voter inserts into a ballot tabulator.

Ballot tabulators are never connected to the internet. State law requires all election equipment and ballots to be stored in a secured location with documented chain of custody procedures and seals to detect physical tampering.

Before every statewide election, all election equipment is tested, including at public accuracy tests. These tests of voting equipment are witnessed by at least two election judges from different political parties.

After each state general election, counties randomly draw a set of precincts where they audit the results from the ballot tabulators. In the audit, votes for certain offices are counted by hand, and that total is compared with the machine-counted results from election night.

Q: How does Minnesota maintain accurate voter rolls and remove ineligible registrations, such as people who have moved away or died?

A: Minnesota maintains voter registration records through the Statewide Voter Registration System, a database administered by the Secretary of State’s Office and maintained by county election officials. The system is updated daily and uses data from state and federal agencies to verify and update voter information.

When voters register or update their information, they must swear under oath that they are eligible to vote. Then, registration information is checked against records from agencies including Driver and Vehicle Services, the Social Security Administration, the Department of Health and court systems. If information cannot be verified, a voter’s record may be flagged for further review.

The system is updated daily using information from sources including the Department of Health, Social Security Administration, State Court Administrator, Department of Corrections, Driver and Vehicle Services and the United States Postal Service.

Election officials use that information to remove deceased or inactive voters, update addresses, and flag registrations that may be ineligible due to felony status, revoked voting rights or non-citizenship. Those records are challenged and require additional review before a person can vote, the office said.

Q: What checks and balances exist to prevent partisan interference in elections?

A: Minnesota’s election system is decentralized. Local election officials in counties, cities and townships are responsible for registering voters and administering elections.

The secretary of state is responsible for providing training and support to these election officials. State law requires party balance amongst election judges serving in polling places on Election Day. It also requires various tasks performed on Election Day and by the absentee ballot board be completed by a two election judges from differing political parties.

Anyone administering the election swears to uphold the U.S. Constitution and the Minnesota Constitution and follow all state and federal laws. There are state and federal penalties for anyone who tampers with an election and there are also penalties for election administrators who do not report suspected interference.

Q: If an election worker or official attempted to tamper with results, what systems are in place to detect it?

A: Election officials conduct their work guided by extensive laws and procedures.

Some of the security measures include requirements that all ballots and election equipment are kept in secure locations with documented chains of custody; that election equipment must be tested publicly before every election; and that hand-count audits are conducted after every statewide election.

The Secretary of State’s Office also conducts additional in-depth audits at randomly selected locations after every statewide election.

Q: Has Minnesota ever detected attempts by foreign actors to interfere with election systems or influence voters?

A: Since 2016, foreign actors have targeted election offices around the U.S.

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security informed Minnesota that the state was among 21 states targeted by entities acting on behalf of the Russian government before the 2016 election.

According to the office, the activity targeting Minnesota involved scans of IP addresses associated with the secretary of state’s website to look for potential vulnerabilities. The office said no breach occurred and no attempt was made to access Minnesota’s election systems.

In 2025, Simon provided a comprehensive overview to the Minnesota Senate Elections Committee, where he said the state has received assistance from federal agencies to help protect against cyber threats, physical security threats and disinformation campaigns.

Simon said Minnesota did not experience foreign-created fake videos targeting elections during the 2024 election, but election officials did receive threats, including bomb threats and a threatening mailing sent to the Secretary of State’s Office.

Q: What evidence can you offer concerned residents that the system is working as intended?

A: A 2026 report by the Office of the Legislative Auditor found that the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State met state law requirements in creating procedures for counties to process voter registration applications. The report found that counties correctly verified the identity of voter registration applicants 99.9% of the time.

Additionally, Minnesota consistently ranks in the top of the country for voter turnout and in 2026, Minnesota ranked first on the Elections Performance Index by the Election Data and Science Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Election Performance Index is a nonpartisan, biennial survey and analysis comparing election administration policy and performance across the country.

“All elections are run by Minnesotans, in their local communities. It takes more than 30,000 election workers to run a statewide election. We invite Minnesotans to serve as election workers or to attend public accuracy tests of election equipment to see for themselves how elections are run,” the office said in a statement.