America First Legal is threatening to file a lawsuit if Minnesota fails to correct “legal deficiencies” with a controversial voter “vouching” law.
Under Minnesota state law, an individual seeking to become registered to vote on Election Day can confirm their residency simply by having a registered voter “vouch” for them.
Registered voters can vouch for up to eight people, but someone who is vouched for cannot vouch for someone else. Staff at residential facilities can vouch for an unlimited number of facility residents.
The law requires the voucher to accompany the vouchee to the polling place and sign an oath affirming that the voucher is either registered in the precinct or employed by the residential facility, and that the voucher personally knows the vouchee resides in the precinct.
America First Legal (AFL) obtained data last month showing that 18,898 people used “vouching” to either update their voter registration or become registered to vote in Minnesota in 2024.
Now, in a pre-litigation notice sent to Secretary of State Steve Simon on Thursday, AFL and local counsel Erick Kaardal said Minnesota’s vouching statute violates the National Voter Registration Act by failing to satisfy its requirement that states make a “reasonable effort” to maintain accurate voter registration rolls.
“Minnesota’s voter registration rolls contain significant numbers of individuals registered at addresses where they do not actually reside. This is reflected in the disproportionately high rates of undeliverable postal verification cards associated with vouched registrations, the elevated rates at which vouched voters are later placed in challenged status, and failures identified through post-election verification efforts,” the notice says.
“Reliance on unverified personal attestations of residence—particularly where any verification occurs only after votes have been counted and election results finalized—does not constitute a ‘reasonable effort’ to ensure accurate and reliable voter registration records under the NVRA,” it continues.
AFL said it will file a lawsuit in 20 days from the date of the letter if Minnesota fails to correct the “legal deficiencies” in its vouching system.
“Minnesota’s vouching system turns Election Day into an honor-system free-for-all,” said James K. Rogers, senior counsel at AFL.
“It undermines election integrity by allowing unverified and potentially unlawful registrations that cannot be remedied after ballots are counted. This system violates federal law, which requires states to make reasonable efforts to maintain accurate voter rolls and to administer programs uniformly and without discrimination.”
The organization sent the notice to Simon on behalf of its client, Paul Wikstrom, a Republican candidate for Congress in Minnesota’s Fourth District.
“Minnesotans deserve to know that every legal vote counts and that our elections are secure,” Wikstrom said in a statement. “The vouching system is an open invitation to fraud. One person can vouch for eight voters with no documentation required, and those ballots are counted and mixed in immediately — there’s no way to fix it after the fact if something is wrong. That’s not election integrity. That’s a system with no controls and no accountability.”
Anthony Gockowski
Anthony Gockowski is Editor-in-Chief of Alpha News. He previously worked as an editor for The Minnesota Sun and Campus Reform, and wrote for the Daily Caller.
