More than 140 people are alleged to have listed their current address as a mail center in the basement of a Minneapolis commercial property while registering to vote. The attorney for Phyllis Kahn, Democrat candidate for Minnesota State House, is calling for an investigation after discovering that there might be a coordinated effort to register voters using the 419 Cedar Avenue address in Minneapolis. Kahn’s Attorney Brian Rice says, "I think there is a coordinated effort to use this address to bring voters into the DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor) primary election on August 12, that's what I think is going on. It's wrong, it violates Minnesota Law, it's a crime."
Days after absentee voting began, it became apparent that voter registration records from the Secretary of State’s office show that more than 140 people used the commercial mail center address to register.
The Star Tribune reports that:
“No one lives at the address, which is a . . . commercial building housing several small businesses and a popular mail center. Several dozen apartments upstairs use a different building number. Records also show that more than 90 of the registrants at that address have voted in previous elections, although it’s unclear how many voted while registered at 419 Cedar.”
A particularly troubling allegation is the fact that other people may have registered these “voters” without them knowing. According to the Star Tribune, people have been voting from this address since 2008:
“One new customer came to the center Sunday after being contacted by a reporter, wondering who had registered this address in his name, Hassan said. Records indicate that the registration was changed recently. “Who made registration for him?” Hassan said, adding that the man was perplexed.”
Although the allegations of fraud in this case are within the Democrat party, Republicans have a reason to be interested as well:
“There is a side of me that is kind of chuckling,” Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson, said Monday. Newman sponsored the failed constitutional amendment that would have required voters to present photo ID at the polls. “This particular story lends credence to what some of us have tried to accomplish.”