ST. PAUL – Today marks the first day of early voting in the State of Minnesota, and State Representative Peggy Bennett (R-Albert Lea) has learned she is already losing votes thanks to ballot processing errors made by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office.
Bennett, a Republican, was alerted to the problem after a Faribault County supporter contacted her asking when she became a Democrat. The Republican supporter cast his ballot this morning and voted for the Republican state representative candidate that was inaccurately listed on his ballot - her Democrat opponent. The Republican National Committee also received reports of the error.
“On the heels of the news that more than 1,000 non-citizens were put onto Minnesota’s new automatic voter registration system, Faribault County voters in House District 23A are now being handed ballots that have messed up my party affiliation,” Bennett said. “It is yet another example of a broken government that shows us more and more that it is rarely working for the people. Faribault County residents should know that I have not switched political parties, and I have always been, and will continue to be, a Republican who will fight for your rights and freedoms.”
A Faribault County sample ballot on the Secretary of State’s website shows the error, seen here. Bennett represents a majority of Faribault County.
Bennett wonders how many more votes she’s lost today due to the Secretary of State’s blunder. She has been told someone from Secretary Simon’s office has been sent to help Faribault County deal with the problem.
“I want to make it clear; this is not the fault of anyone at the Faribault County Auditor’s Office, and they have been working hard all day to clean up a mess they didn’t create,” Bennett said. “It is just disappointing that these ballots weren’t doubled checked for errors by the Secretary of State’s Office before being printed. Election integrity matters, and distributing inaccurate ballots to the county certainly undermines election integrity in our state.”