Minnesota Voters Alliance P.O. Box 4602 Saint Paul, MN 55104 www.mnvoters.org info@mnvoters.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contacts: Andy Cilek 612-990-2533 info@mnvoters.org Erick Kaardal, Attorney 612-341-1074 kaardal@mklaw.com Minnesota Voters Alliance files federal lawsuit to protect voters rights in Minnesota Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 28, 2012The Minnesota Voters Alliance (MVA) announced today it has filed a federal lawsuit asking the court to order the State of Minnesota to enforce the Minnesota Constitutions voter eligibility requirements. The State currently allows persons who register to vote on election day to have their ballots counted prior to the state confirming their eligibility to vote. That failure of the State to do its constitutional duty to determine who is eligible to vote and who is not has resulted in thousands of unentitled persons voting in the 2008 and 2010 elections. The lawsuit asserts that under the Minnesota Constitution, a person is not entitled to vote until his or her eligibility has been confirmed. For example, in the 2008 election for U.S. Senate in which Al Franken won by 312 votes, the State failed to confirm the eligibility of more than 500,000 voters until after their votes had been counted. When the State did get around to checking the eligibility of those 500,000 voters, it could not, even as late as today, confirm the eligibility of more than 48,000 of them. Others, in particular Minnesota Majority, have done pioneering work in determining how many ineligible felons voted in the presidential-year election of 2008 and have identified at least 1,500 such illegal voters. Research shows significant problems with the States ability to confirm that every voter actually lives in the precinct in which he or she votes. The lawsuit is not about taking away anyones right to vote. It does not seek to prevent election day registration. It asks the court to prevent the state from waiving, on election day, the eligibility requirements embodied in the Minnesota Constitution. Everyone who votes on

election day should have his or her ballot counted, but only after their eligibility has been confirmed. The MVA notes that the State holds all of the information about each voter. The State knows their name, the age of the person, their citizenship status, where they live, if they are a felon, if they are under guardianship. They know their drivers license number or their state ID number. The State has access to all of that information from its management of the Department of Public Safety, from its court records, the Social Security Administration, and other sources. Further, the State knows exactly when and where each person voted. Yet, it has made public no attempt to review its performance to see if a problem exists. The Minnesota Voters Alliance calls on the Office of the Secretary of State to be transparent about the current state of ineligible voting in Minnesota. The Secretary should tell the people of Minnesota precisely how much ineligible voting has occurred during and since 2008.