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Election Integrity: The View from Beltrami County

…I can say that myself and everyone in my office takes great pride in the integrity of the election. –JoDee Treat, Beltrami County Auditor and Treasurer

…it was an utterly nonpartisan process... we sat together; it was a very careful accounting job that we did, and we had Republicans and Democrats. We didn't discuss politics, of course, and everybody took it very seriously to make sure that voters had a good experience. – Mark Morrissey, Beltrami County Election Official

Beltrami County Auditor and Treasurer JoDee Treat oversees Beltrami County’s elections.  Mark Morrissey volunteered as an election judge for the first time this year.   Covid-19 presented challenges, logistically.  Trump has alluded to election fraud, baselessly.   Treet and Morrissey joined the morning show to discuss Election Day in Beltrami County-everything from adjustments made to address Covid-19 to the checks and balances within the system that ensure election integrity.   

… it starts with the voter registration application…we enter that into the state's voter ID and voter registration system. The state then runs that through DMV records to see if there is a driver's license match, then runs that through Social Security Administration and Department of Health help to make sure that the voter isn't deceased and the state also works with the post office to make sure that addresses are correct.…with that very first voter registration application and then the state sending us those checks and balances. For example, yes, this driver's license does match for this person or no, this driver's license doesn't match. So…we need to get more ID from them…We don't want someone to vote absentee and then go into the poll site on election date and try to vote... as voters come in, if it's someone that has already voted and they try to vote again, as an official pulls up their name on the roster, he will get a notation that that person already has a ballot accepted. So that's a good check and balance to make sure someone isn't allowed to vote twice. – JoDee Treat
 

there was an excellent system…watermarked ballots that can’t be forged. There's a count of how many we receive. There's a count of how many we use, of how many are spoiled and how many are marked. Every ballot needs to be matched to the roster registration…We totaled up all of our ballots that were received, all the registrations that were received, made sure those totals are the same. And it was utterly nonpartisan process...we sat together; it was a very careful accounting job that we did and we had Republicans and Democrats. We didn't discuss politics, of course, and everybody took it very seriously to make sure that voters had a good experience…people kind of spin these theories that people are going around and doing all these extra ballots. But that didn't even occur once. I mean, I can only speak for our location, but it's a it's just about an airtight system.– Mark Morrissey

Thanks to everyone who worked the elections this year! 

Click on the arrow for the full interview! 

Katie Carter started at Northern Community Radio in 2008 as Managing Editor of the station's grant-funded, online news experiment Northern Community Internet. She returned for a second stint in 2016-23. She produced Area Voices showcasing the arts, culture, and history stories of northern Minnesota.