The first statewide post election review of votes cast in each of Minnesota’s 87 counties is complete and the results should give Minnesota voters renewed confidence in the state’s voting machines, said Mark Halvorson, director and co-founder of Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota.
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The State Canvassing Board met Tuesday at the State Office Building and certified the election results. The accuracy of Minnesota’s electronic voting machines was assessed for the first time through a hand count of randomly selected precincts in each county. “Our goal is to help Minnesota set the gold standard for accurate and verifiable elections,” said Halvorson. “Based on reports from our observers in 70 counties, we are impressed by the accuracy of the machines that were reviewed and the professionalism of the county election officials.”
Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer commented, “Now we have a way to publicly demonstrate the accuracy of our voting machines.”
Mark Ritchie, secretary of state-elect said he was "excited to hear the very positive results from our first reviews. We can all feel a great deal of confidence in our election results - and only hope that other states can catch up to our system before the 2008 elections."
Volunteers around the state took part in the nation’s first statewide observation of a post election review. Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota coordinated this effort which was co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters Minnesota.
Helen Palmer, president of the League of Women Voters Minnesota, noted that citizens around the country have expressed concern about programming errors and other incidents of vote count inaccuracies. “We’re pleased to report that Minnesota’s voting machines have withstood objective review,” said Palmer.
Of Minnesota's 4,121 precincts, 195, or nearly 5%, were reviewed. Every county reviewed two to four randomly selected precincts with the exception of Hennepin County which reviewed eight precincts. Minnesota is one of 13 states with a post election review/audit law.
Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota and the League of Women Voters Minnesota are both non-profit, non-partisan organizations. For more information visit www.ceimn.org and www.lwvmn.org.
For documented media reports of voting machine inaccuracies around the country visit www.votersunite.org and www.votetrustusa.org.
(Submitted by Kathlyn Stone)
