[KSTP] A warrant has been issued for a Minneapolis man who is accused of fraudulently signing absentee ballots as a witness.
Abdihakim Amin Essa, 22, is wanted on 13 counts of intentionally making or signing a false certificate, according to a document filed in Hennepin County District Court on Thursday.
The court filing alleges that on July 30, 2018, two election workers at the Hennepin County Election Center claimed to have seen Essa, who was working as an election "helper" to voter registrants and absentee voters, bring a woman in for registration. The woman did not have the right identification to register and was told to come back. When she returned with a different "helper," the address on her voter registration had changed.
The election workers then found Essa and asked him about the discrepancy in addresses. He told them that he had been signing absentee ballots by signing his father's name, Amin Aar, because he was not a U.S. citizen. Essa also admitted to working for a campaign, according to the document. One of the election workers later confirmed that Essa's father was a registered voter.
Election officials then inspected an estimated 9,000 ballots in search of envelopes that Essa had signed either as himself or in his father's name, the court filing states. They were able to find 13 such absentee ballots, which were then discarded. The affected voters were sent letters telling them their ballots had been rejected and they would need to vote again.
The Minneapolis police sergeant who filed the complaint in court was not able to find Essa on two different dates. He is still not in jug.
The facts of this case are shocking. Already, we’ve just learned that one non-citizen can fraudulently vouch for at least 13 people to vote—who clearly were not citizens themselves. And the falsifying of the 13 absentee ballots was only caught because election officials knew to look for Essa’s name, due to his brazenly suspicious activity. How easy is it to cast an absentee ballot? How many other absentee ballots are falsified and never caught?
Even more troubling is the connection between Essa and what appears to be an organized scheme to commit voter fraud. Why aren’t prosecutors looking into the politician, and political party, that Essa was working for? Did the candidate or the party know about this organized effort?
This comes as the Minnesota Voters Alliance (MVA) is suing Minnesota’s Democrat Secretary of State Steve Simon for voter registration data that could help show the extent of voter fraud in Minnesota. Simon, in contravention of state law, has been refusing to release that information.
Many claim, without evidence, that fraudulent voting doesn’t exist, and that instances such as this are isolated incidences. But the people who make these claims really don’t know, because nobody knows for sure. But we should know for sure.
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