Election Administration and Voter Rolls

Minnesota state Rep. Pam Altendorf, vice chair of the House Elections Committee, says a data file she obtained from Hennepin County’s active voter rolls contained nearly 3,000 entries missing key identifiers such as names, addresses or dates of birth, along with what she describes as potential duplicate registrations and a number of voters listed as over 100 years old. Altendorf told Fox News she requested active voter‑roll data from four counties after reviewing state law and consulting with election‑integrity groups, but says three counties refused after Secretary of State Steve Simon’s office allegedly instructed them not to comply, while Hennepin County turned the file over. County officials responded that they follow state law and secretary‑of‑state guidance and noted that some anomalies have benign explanations, such as the use of a 1900 birth year as a placeholder for voters who registered before 1983, and that 'address verification' challenges are common when mail is returned undeliverable. Altendorf argues that blocking legislative access to full rolls undermines confidence in Minnesota elections and has called for 'federal help' if Simon will not 'clean' the rolls, even as voting‑rights advocates generally warn that aggressive list purges risk wrongly removing eligible voters. The clash adds Minnesota’s largest county to a growing national battleground over who can see and audit detailed voter‑registration data, how much imperfect but explainable data counts as an integrity problem, and whether partisan claims about 'dirty' rolls match what election administrators and past audits actually find.