Minnesota elections director admits illegal immigrants could vote with state-issued driver’s license

During a Minnesota House Fraud Committee hearing on Tuesday, GOP representative Patti Anderson questioned how the system would work. “So we give a driver’s license to anyone here. You don’t have to be a citizen… So if someone comes in, they register, they have the driver’s license, but they have an incorrect social [security number], or no social, or whatever, then they become incomplete, but if they walk in to vote with their driver’s license, does that make them all the sudden now okay?

Linnell responded, “If [the illegal alien] presents the election judge with that acceptable identification document, that would clear the challenge from the roster and they would be permitted to cast a ballot.”

“Well, okay. There’s your problem, potentially,” Anderson replied. Linnell added that voters at the time of registration and while submitting a ballot must sign an attestation confirming that they are eligible to vote, and that those later found to have lied would face prosecution.

Additionally, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, who was also present before the Committee, was asked by committee chair Rep. Kristin Robbins if he would support having proof of citizenship as part of the way to verify eligibility in the state. Simon, instead, cited a similar law passed in Kansas.

“30,000 eligible Kansas voters—as eligible as you are or I am—were turned away because they couldn’t produce the proper proofs. I don’t think we want to be that in Minnesota,” he said.

The remarks come amid ongoing debate in Minnesota over whether expanded access to driver’s licenses has allowed unauthorized voting. In March 2023, Governor Tim Walz signed legislation allowing Minnesotans to receive a state driver’s license regardless of immigration status.