Illegal migrants and other non-citizens in Minnesota could circumvent election law and vote simply by presenting a driver’s license on election day — though election officials stress that the practice is illegal.
Local leaders are waking up to the glaring problem with same-day registration voting, which is when a non-registered voter shows up on election day with a valid ID and casts a ballot.
State Representative Kristin Robbins, chair of state’s House Fraud Prevention Committee, is calling out Minnesota election officials and had harsh words for Democratic Gov. Tim Walz.
“Tim Walz has made Minnesota the fraud capital of the country and I have no confidence in his oversight of elections,” Robbins, a Republican candidate for governor, told The Post. “We got lots of election problems.”
Robbins raised the alarm at an Oct. 14 hearing in which she pressed state Elections Director Paul Linnell on the issue.
Linnell conceded it was possible, though illegal, for a non-citizen, including illegal immigrants, green card holders, or refugees, to cast a ballot that would be counted towards election totals.
“If they present the election judge with the acceptable identification document that would clear the challenge from the roster and they would be permitted to cast a ballot,” Linnell said of non-citizens with driver’s licenses.
“If it’s determined that the voter is not in fact eligible to vote that information would be provided to the county attorney for investigation and potential prosecution.”
Even if state election officials follow through with checking each same-day registration vote and tracking down fraudsters — the vote would still count towards the election outcome, Robbins said.
“There’s no provisional ballot segregating votes that are same-day registrations so there’s no way to know. It just gets dumped in with all the regular votes,” the rep revealed to The Post, noting that investigators have “42 days” to track down illegal voters after election day.
More than 130,000 illegal immigrants live in Minnesota, according to Pew Research, and more than 25,000 non-citizens were given driver’s licenses in 2024 thanks to the Walz-backed Expanding Access to Driver’s Licenses bill which went on the books in 2023, according to the nonprofit, online news outlet Sahan Journal.
The potential for election fraud skyrocketed in 2024, when the Minnesota statehouse passed a law which automatically registered every person who receives a driver’s license to vote, KSMP reported.
Drivers are asked for proof of citizenship when applying for a license, said state officials, who insisted non-citizens would not be registered to vote if they failed to provide proper documentation.
“Their explanation is that if someone shows up and doesn’t have a US birth certificate, then they’re not going to be opted into the registration for voters,” Robbins said. “But there’s just no way to know.”
Minnesota is being sued by the Trump administration alongside six other states — including New York and California — for failing to turn over their voter rolls.
“If our voter rolls are so clean why is he hesitating to produce it?” Robbins asked. “It begs the question, ‘Is it because they’re afraid there are not citizens?’”
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