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KSTP: “LEGISLATORS CALL FOR INVESTIGATION OF SECRETARY OF STATE”
By Michael B. Brodkorb | October 31, 2007
"State representatives called for an investigation into the allegations of misusing public data for political fundraising by Secretary of State Mark Ritchie Tuesday.
The investigation request is in response to allegations that Ritchie or his office used data from a nonpartisan public meeting for political fundraising.
'As members of the House Government Operations Committee, we are calling for an immediate and thorough investigation into these allegations,' said State Representative Tom Emmer.
Attendees at a meeting designed to promote civic education in April were asked to provide their names and email addresses on a signup sheet for future 'Civic Education' correspondence. At least three attendees received a fundraising email last week from Ritchie's campaign. Neither attendee in the formal complaint filed with the Legislative Auditor had been the previous recipient of fundraising from Ritchie or his campaign." Source: KSTP, October 30, 2007
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29 Responses to “KSTP: “LEGISLATORS CALL FOR INVESTIGATION OF SECRETARY OF STATE””
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October 31st, 2007 at 8:58 AM
This story keeps on going….and we’ve still heard no explanation from Sec. Ritchie (other than the super-lame line, “I didn’t authorize this”)
Let’s see how long this will drag on — Ritchie needs to step up and show some type of leadership/responsibility.
October 31st, 2007 at 9:08 AM
What a joke! You could get Emmer and Brod to call for an investigation of just about anything, I expect later in the day they will issue an investigation into the high cost of girl scout cookies.
October 31st, 2007 at 9:25 AM
It’d be nice if Ritchie just admitted his staff made a mistake. I’m not sure who is advising him to twist in the wind like this.
October 31st, 2007 at 9:48 AM
Perhaps I should arrange a call between Matt Entenza and Mark Ritchie.
If Entenza can step away from his non-partisan think-tank for a few minutes, he mihgt offer some valuable advice to Ritchie.
You’d think these guys would learn from each other’s mistakes. But, I guess their egos are just too big.
October 31st, 2007 at 11:13 AM
Personally, Tiki Tom, I don’t think Thin Mints and Tag-Alongs are that expensive…
I do believe the Secretary of State is in trouble up to his Do-Si-Dos.
October 31st, 2007 at 1:28 PM
Girl Scot cookies are expensive.
Of course you can squarely place that blame at the feet of the local DFL as their desire to fund transit over roads causes the cost of the supplies to go up and the distribution of the cookies. Hard to get the light rail line to deliver all those cookies around the country.
Anyting else tinkle Tom?
October 31st, 2007 at 3:31 PM
Okay Tom. Just what can be investigated?
If the governor had done it you will be screaming bloody murder and demanding he resign. Furthermore you’re overlooking two very important points here:
One, this is the top enforcement officer in Minnesota for elections. If he doesn’t obey the law and except to get away with it everybody will break the law. Doesn’t that mean anything by itself.
Two, this is the man who last year criticized Mary Keifemeyer for using the office to promote the Republican party agenda. The way Mary Keifemeyer was attacked was because she called for rules that tried to make sure only people who could legally vote voted! Nothing she did matched this or was even a scandal!!!! This is a scandal!!!!!!
So Tom explain why Mark is innocent and doesn’t deserve an investigation here. I’ve just listed two very good reasons why there should be an investigation!
Tom I don’t hear you!
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
October 31st, 2007 at 3:35 PM
Walter
You always have such great posts on here! Keep it going. You give fellow Minneapolitans some hope.
If Ritchie has done nothing wrong, why wouldn’t he be chomping at the bit to respond?
October 31st, 2007 at 3:51 PM
First of all I agree Girl Scout cookies are too damn expensive! I don’t blame the few pennies we throw at transit, I blame it on good marketing.
To Walter’s concerns, you can call for an investigation into anything you want, but the more you cry wolf like these clowns do, the less people listen.
Is Mark innocent or guilty, I don’t know, but the evidence I have seen so far proves nothing. In relation to the Governor he has had his fair share of shady business deals and ethical lapses. He’s had some fines and other matters that techincally did not break the law, but by most would be called unethical.
As for little Ms. Kiffy, how about her nice idea to ban tribal ID cards for voting? or doing everything in her power to make going to vote more difficult? or urging Congress to not follow Minnesota’s model of same day registration? Ms. Kiffy deserved to get canned and she did.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:09 PM
What did Kiffmeyer do to make voting more difficult?
If you believe prohibiting a person from vouching for several other people, or requiring some proof of residency is bad public policy, then we disagree.
October 31st, 2007 at 4:41 PM
Okay Tom lets get a couple of points straight:
One, I believe if you are able to legally vote you should be able to vote even if that means registering on site on election day. What I object to is a person who legally can’t vote (such as an alien – legal status doesn’t matter) from voting and offsetting my vote. Tom I’m sure you’re in agreement with me on that point. Only people who legally can vote should vote.
Two, as a person who works in an office that you can call DMV I’ve seen all types of documents including fake ones. Under your rule all you have to do is create a card for an indian tribe (even if the tribe doesn’t know about it) pass it out to a bunch of people who probably legally can’t vote to help them vote. If you’re a member of a legal tribe you probably should already have a valid Minnesota ID card or Drivers license to use instead of a tribal ID card.
Three, Mark is the state’s top election law enforcement officer so you think it’s not necessary to even investigate a charge of wrong doing. When CBS was breaking the phony national guard story Bush people cooperated with the public by giving out copies of the copies they got from CBS news. That helped to show quickly that Bush had done nothing wrong, because it became self evident that the documents were fake. If Mark was really innocent and having nothing to hide he will be racing to show that he didn’t do anything wrong! He would even be wanting an investigation to clear his name!!!!
Four, you have three people who said that Mark Ritchie had never asked for money from them before, but at an official function for which they didn’t expect the emails to be passed on for political functions. No matter how you spin it Tom there is a problem to be corrected!!!! The only way to identify the problem is to trace how the campaign got to the email addresses. Hence an investigation.
Five, just for your information since the 1996 election where Bob Doran had his victory stolen I’ve been worried about illegal voters stealing my vote. I was one of I hope many Republicans who everytime we saw Mary Kiffmeyer who went and reminded her hey I have nothing against people votiing as long as they can legally vote. Mary did her job. Mark on the other hand seems to think that if you’re illegal to vote come and vote any way. That certainly seems to be the way he wants to raise his campaign funds.
So Tom the basic question is do you want Mark to be obeying the spirit of the law let alone the letter of the law? I don’t think so.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
October 31st, 2007 at 10:44 PM
I don’t expect Tiki Tom to answer. Even a liberal knows when he or she should exit stage right. Good job putting it all in perspective for kool aid drinkers Walter. I know they still can’t follow the logic, but I also know that it would take them a long time to figure out how to spin it.
November 1st, 2007 at 9:15 AM
thanks right is right plus the other person who thanked me earlier.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
November 1st, 2007 at 9:44 AM
Walter,
1. Show me proof that we have a problem in Minnesota with aliens voting?
2. It is their legal right to use a tribal ID card if they chose. Minneapolis has one of the largest urban native american populations in the US, so it makes sense to allow it. Again, do you have proof of people with fake tribal IDs voting?
3. As I have said before, you can call for investigations on whatever you like, but the more you do it for politically based reasons the more people tend to discount it.
4. Personal information (if a name and address can be considered that) is a very fluid thing there are tons and tons of places it be attained. I have received fundraising letters from Republicans in the past and I have never given or attended a Republican event, so how did I get on their list? Do I call for an investigation into that candidate? No, I put it in the trash, it’s really not that hard.
5. Mary did her job very poorly and did not promote Minnesota’s past standard of being proud of the highest voter turnout in the nation. There is no evidence of large scale voter fraud in Minnesota. Efforts to reduce turnout in the Native American and minority populations, like Ms. Kiffmeyer did, only seek to reduce the number of likely DFL voters that go to the polls.
November 1st, 2007 at 10:45 AM
Tom where to start on your silly thoughts.
One, can you prove to me instead that not one illeagal alien has voted in an election in Minnesota? literally everyday in my job (remember I said I work in a DMV job) a person shows up to do transactions that have the warning signs they are illegal. They will show a Mexican consular card, a mexican passport, a translated international drivers license. Tom can you and Mark Ritchie give me a 100% guarantee that they won’t vote!! Until you do everyone one of your arguments are worthless!!!!
Two, you seem to have a standard a percentage of adults who vote. Lets use football challenges for a second here to make a point on this. Last Sunday Brad Childress made at least one if not two very stupid challenges. If Childress had been a good coach he wouldn’t have made the challenges and wasted our time outs. In your world that will be doing his job badly because he’s not using his two challenges every game.
Three, yes or no should only legal voters be voting?
Four, if you’re a member of a group that has ties with the other party that gets you fund raising info. I’m a member of AFSCME so I get Democrat letters all the time. So this might not be an issue at all if the Ritchie campaign can offer an explanation (so far they haven’t) that will help clarify the matter. Since they won’t the only recourse is an investigation.
Five, so you think it’s okay for other people to have their email addresses given out illegally? Don’t you care? This is nonpartisian unlike our Secretary of State.
And six, if Mark Ritchie can’t protect email addresses given to him for nonpolitical purposes how is going to protect our elections?
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
November 1st, 2007 at 12:40 PM
Tiki Tom:
“Is Mark innocent or guilty, I don’t know, but the evidence I have seen so far proves nothing.”
There is explicit evidence that Mark Ritchie campaign illegally gained access to and illegally used a list owned by the state of Minnesota.
“In relation to the Governor he has had his fair share of shady business deals and ethical lapses. He’s had some fines and other matters that techincally did not break the law, but by most would be called unethical.”
Name one. While you’re at it, name one that looks as though he stole state property. Once you do that, name one where he stole state property for his own benefit.
Ritchie’s fucked. And he deserves to be canned, pronto.
November 1st, 2007 at 12:54 PM
P.S. Walter Hansen for Secretary of State!!!!
November 1st, 2007 at 12:55 PM
… uh… sorry… make that Walter HansOn!
November 1st, 2007 at 1:35 PM
thanks Chestnut! The President of my local that has made Treasurer for Life might not let me do that!
Three more things Tom.
One, part of this story is three people who to the best of their knowledge who has never received solitictions on email got one! If they were on a shared list they would’ve got one from Swanson’s campaign, Hatch’s campaign, the DFL party, etc. They didn’t. One of your points was that you get Republican stuff all the time. These people don’t meet your standard. The only thing they have thought of that explains the soliticitation was that they gave Mark Ritchie’s office their email addresses!
Two, if you think it’s totally harmless to have people who you don’t want to have your email address why don’t you publically list your email address when you respond to me?
Three, remember in South Dakota in 2002 where the Indian tribes went out and voted something like 98% vote rates while the rest of the state had a lower rate. It was later learned that there was fraud going on in South Dakota with the Indian vote! Being a good steward to stop fraud Mary had to focus on stopping possible abuse in Minnesota. Of course since your candidate won in South Dakota in 2002 because of fraud you don’t care. You probably cared could you get fraud in Minnesota to help your people win their elections.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
November 1st, 2007 at 1:37 PM
Walter,
1. You showed me no proof! Even if one person did, would it be justification to make the act of voting way more difficult for 3-4 million Minnesotans? Illegal folks should not vote and if you say they do, especially enough to swing an elective race, prove it. Until you prove to me we have a problem all your agruments are worthless.
2. The fact that you still bother to watch the Vikings with Childress coaching tells me you need some hobbbies.
3. Answered in #1.
4. As I said previously have never attended any Republican events, voted for them, given them any money or signed up for any email lists, yet I have received fundraising appeals from Republican candidates. Do I think it’s some grand conspiracy? No, I think it’s someone doing a shitty job cleaning their lists and wasting their campaign’s money. Do I feel violated? No! People send me tons of crap, I recycle it, it’s not a big deal.
5. Email does not have the privacy rules that many other things do, although I don’t claim to be a lawyer. Email is a very public thing and our federal government can already view yours if they really wanted to. That being said, do I like getting emails that are not related to my interests (spam) of course not. But again it’s not that hard to filter those! or hit the delete button! I don’t take it as a personal offense like these gentlemen seem to do.
6. Following a strong tradition of clean elections I have no doubt that will change anytime soon. Despite Kiffmeyer’s attempt to throw monkey wrenches in our electoral system, we still have one of the best in the nation.
November 1st, 2007 at 1:43 PM
Walter,
1. I am quite sure that Mr. Giga in his line of work playing his role of partisan attack dog pretending to be “non-partisan” has signed up for plenty of contacts to both GOP and DFL organizations. If the Taxpayers League is truly “non-partisan” then of course they would have an interest in what both parties say and would sign up for all the lists
2. Nice try buddy
3. Again show me proof of wide-spread voter fraud in Minnesota? Sure, lots of other states have problems, but we don’t live there do we?
November 1st, 2007 at 2:12 PM
Tom nice try, but:
One, there were three people. You only tried to disprove one so you haven’t proved your case.
Two, you didn’t give me any 100% proof that there isn’t voter fraud so you haven’t proved your case.
Three, you didn’t list your email address where anybody can see it so you proved my point that people have the right to be concerned about how their email address is being used so your conduct proved my case!
Four, Fraud in California and South Dakota is good enough to show reason for concern so unless you can prove that those weren’t fraud you haven’t proven your case!
Five, you didn’t prove that Ritchie didn’t give out the email addressess legally so an investigation is still justified.
Six, explain why a person who is living illegally in the United States won’t try to vote illegally in election is nothing to worry about. I see hundreds of illegal aliens at my job every year Tom! Prove to me each one of them won’t vote especially for the candidate that will give them amentsty and government benefits.
So Tom why don’t you offer your proof? The fact that you’re ignoring the facts shows how wrong you are.
Oh by the way what’s your email adress? If you say it’s none of my business that’s enough proof to show this act by Ritchie is wrong. So there’s proof that you know about!
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis
November 1st, 2007 at 4:07 PM
Okay Tom lets go over a few more facts.
You said I shouldn’t be watching the Vikings on Sunday. So are you telling hundreds of thousands of people that they need hobbies? Yet this rational you’re using to justify:
* You can tell me what football team not to root for!
* Are you going to tell Ziggy Wolff to disband the team since you think they are so helpless?
* You tell somebody that they obviously set a trap for Mark Ritchie by making a false pointless complaint. If their complaint is so pointless you should have no problem wanting to advertise your email publically. One business owner who is so confident in his business’s ability to block abuse of financial records does a radio commercial where he announces his social security number. If you’re so sure nothing wrong will happen with your email address where’s the email address? Until you do that email address announcement you have proved my point end of discussion!
Okay you said Minnesota has never had a case of fraud. The problem is you don’t have records that show a person voted illegally, just the number of people who voted so you can’t offically track the amount of fraud. The goal of course is try to stop fraud from happening so you don’t have a race like the South Dakota 2002 Senate race from happening in the first place. Mary Keifmeyer wanted to stop that from happening. Mark Ritchie doesn’t care. That can’t be disputed. So despite all your protests you endorse Mary Keifmeyer protecting you!
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
November 1st, 2007 at 7:15 PM
Tiki Tom,
Walter has a point that you must address to even hope to be taken seriously. The PREVENTION of fraud is equally important as going after known fraud.
Your use of the figures of 3 to 4 MILLION disenfranchised voters due to the inability to use tribal id? So the entire population of the state is now native american? Besides tribal id should be equal to a foreign governments id seeing as the tribes are supposed to be sovereign nations. Oh thats right that argument only comes into play when it favors the indians.
November 2nd, 2007 at 5:47 AM
NJ thanks for the comment. Keep in mind Tiki Tom wants to elect Democrats so he doesn’t care that fraud happens to elect Democrats. And if a Democrat goes and commit crimes plus violate the public trust once they get elected that is no big deal since they are doing good works to help people.
To Tiki Tom as long as somebody else email address is being abused that is no big deal. Note the fact that I have now been asking Tiki Tom to publically announce his email address and he doesn’t want to. If this is no big deal he should be happy to do it. He wants his right to protect his email address, but when somebody else has their email address used wrong to help Tiki Tom’s political agenda he thinks that is okay.
Also note nobody seems to be rushing to defend Tiki Tom’s line of reasoning. I guess the small number liberals who go to Minnesota Democrats exposed know this is wrong and doesn’t want to try to defend Ritchie let alone Tiki Tom.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:25 AM
One other fact that should come in to play, Watler… 8 of the 9/11 hijackers were registered to vote.
None of them were citizens.
November 2nd, 2007 at 2:22 PM
Hey Tom no answer yet. Keep in mind something that I have forgotten until MDE’s post about the “Safe at Home” program. I could be fired for misuing data that in theory could be sold to the public! I could be fired!!!!!!
That by itself means this incident let alone the “Safe At Home” incident should be investigated and it is not political! It’s only political to pretend that this wasn’t a serious issue!!!!!!
So Tom ready to eat crow?
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:21 PM
where or where is Tom? If Tom thinks he’s right why isn’t he trying to defend Mark now!
Walter hanosn
November 5th, 2007 at 11:05 AM
still no Tom! he even was wrong about the Vikings. If I listened to Tom I wouldn’t have been able to see A.P.’s record setting performance.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN