In this installment of Behind the Ballot, WCCO Radio's Susie Jones takes a look at the role of the Hennepin County Auditor, and the absentee ballot board.
This past week, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that Hennepin County didn't use the official Republican Party list to create the absentee ballot board. That board oversees questions about ballots.
Hennepin County auditor Dan Rogen says they thought they were in compliance, but have since emailed members of that official list to ask if they wanted to be part of the board and are working diligently to comply with the ruling.
Rogen says so far, they have seen more than 200,000 absentee ballots come in, and their job is to make sure that signatures match on the ballot and the request for ballots. If they don't match, the board steps in to investigate.
He says the number of questionable ballots is relatively small.
"For our absentee ballot board, that's less than 50 ballots a week," Rogen says.
State law requires a balance of Republican and Democratic election judges to oversee voting on both Election Day and during the processing of absentee ballots. Rogen says he wants to reassure the public that the absentee ballot board is balanced and made up of six Republicans and six Democrats.
It's a process Rogen knows well after being part of recounts involving former Governor Mark Dayton, Congressman Tom Emmer, and former Senators Norm Coleman and Al Franken.
"It's part of the job, that when we get close to an election, that there's a lot of moving parts," Rogen said. "And part of that is sometimes there are changes to the law that we hadn't anticipated."
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