One Day At The Crow Wing County Courthouse

Last week – just before the election – the nation got a look at about twenty minutes of video depicting a group of citizens questioning officials from Crow Wing County – think Brainerd – about an apparent incident of ballot-stuffing.

The video left more questions than it answered. Who were these people? What did they see?

The media has touched on the story – and largely asked the really important questions, like “who did the people in the video vote for?”. We’ll come back to that.

I figured it was time to talk with the actual people involved.

The weekend before election day, Monty Jensen of Brainerd took his girlfriend to the Crow Wing County courthouse to vote in person with an absentee ballot. He had to take a partial day of vacation to do it; he commutes from Brainerd to the Twin Cities every day to work. His girlfriend commutes with him; she’s in pharmacy school at the U of M in Minneapolis. “I’m on the road fifteen hours a day”, he points out. So taking the time out to vote was a bit of an effort.

A little after 4:30 on Friday, October 29, Jensen and his girlfriend walked into the Crow Wing County Courthouse, and went upstairs to the Auditor’s office. “It was full of people”, Jensen recalls. They submitted their applications to the auditor, and took a seat to wait their turn to vote. .

“We waited for about fifteen minutes”, Jensen said, “and I noticed there were a lot of people there who seemed to have issues”; they were disabled. “I didn’t think anything of that”, Jensen added.

We’ll come back to that later in the story.

There appeared to be a dozen, maybe fifteen handicapped people, and perhaps three supervisors.

“But what alarmed me”, said Jensen, “was, I’m looking across at a poll booth, and I see a staffer walk over with an individual who’s mentally handicapped, put down ballot w/pen. The guy walked away from the booth. She called him back over – you could tell by her body language she was getting impatient, and the guy wouldn’t come back. So she filled out his ballot. Then she retrieved hjim, and had him turn in his ballot.”

Jensen continued “So I went “what the hell?” I couldn’t[ believe she filled out the guy’s ballot!”

“As I’m voting, the woman was 2 booths down with another invividual. She was talking like he’s a child. Telling him who he should vote for. I think “This isn’t right”. Going right down line, candidate by candidate. I look over – her hand was on the pencil.” Jensen told me he overheard him instructing the man to vote a straight DFL ticket; “it was DFL candiates – Dayton, Oberstar, Taylor Stevens, Ward, right down the ballot, every candidate.”

Jensen said he asked the woman what she was doing. “She grabbed him, went across the room to other station, and continued filling out the ballot. I’ve seen her dictate two people’s votes. My perception is these people [the group of voters] don’t know where they’re at”.

Jensen became concerned. “I went to counter and asked the county worker – “Is this legal?”

Jensen stopped for a moment, and pointed out that he knows that it’s perfectly legal for people to help people to vote. “I’m a disabled veteran. I support the rights of the disabled”.

But, he added, “this was more than “assistance”.

He went to a county worker, and asked if she was aware of what was going on. “She says “Well, yeah””, Jensen continued. “She seemed nervous. Eventually she said “You don’t know the half of it. This is the fourth group we’ve had today”.

Jensen pointed out that his girlfriend witnessed this statement. I’ll be talking with her shortly.

Jensen was so upset by this point that he left the courthouse. “I didn’t really know what to do”.

That would come later.

More later this week.

19 thoughts on “One Day At The Crow Wing County Courthouse”

Remember Joe the Plumber? I hope Mr. Jensen and his girlfriend are prepared for the shitstorm of oppobrium and slime that will be coming their way if this story gains any traction whatsoever.

I hope Mr. Jensen and his girlfriend are prepared for the shitstorm of oppobrium and slime that will be coming their way if this story gains any traction whatsoever.

Hell, the prospect of being “investigated” by Dog Gone would probably be enough to force them into the Witness Protection Program. As punishment for their perfidy they are likely to be covered head to toe in “I Voted” stickers.

What’s the big deal? This lady has been doing this for every election since the Nixon Administration. In her job description it’s not called ‘tampering,’ but ‘facilitating’ voters of challenged abilities. So, she wasn’t taking advantage of anyone, she was helping them in their lawful expressions of their electoral duties. If she didn’t vote for them, they wouldn’t vote at all. Think of the disenfranchisment!

Couple this corruption with the fact that Mark Ritchie & Mark Dayton serve on the advisory board of Wellstone Action, named after the late Sen. Paul Wellstone & which specializes in community organizing, & you get the impression that Tom Emmer can’t get an honest recount.

The corruption involved in Minnesota elections is staggering.

It’s not corruption. It’s DFL business as usual. (Yeah I said it. I’ve been watching it for more than 30 years, and I am sick and tired of being told to ignore what I see.)

…they are likely to be covered head to toe in “I Voted” stickers.

Ding!

DogGone’s silence so far must be because she is currently doing an exhaustive fact check of this post. Fact check. Fact check.

FACT CHECK!!!1!!1!!!!!!

Another example of our supposedly perfect Minnesota voting system, though this would probably fall more on the county workers letting it happen than the SOS.

Mitch, I hope your diligence on this prevails, but if not – I know the bird dogs in the newsrooms of our local media are right on this story. The vanguards of our freedoms in local media will not disappoint. I’m confident that when I tune in Don Shelby tonight he will be engaged in a Channel Four I-Team exclusive report on this scurrilous abuse of voter integrity.

Sorry, I’m late for my meds. My lucidity is waning.

I worked at the polls while in college. It is not okay for a person from the public to help someone else vote. If there are any issues, one Republican and one Democrat poll worker would go into the booth and assist the voter. We knew the law. We knew that there can be NO chance of even the most remote perception of wrongdoing.

Perception is in the eye of the DFL controlled local media. And AG office. I agree with Foot. I await the rigorous fact checking of Dog with great anticipation.

It’s 4:00.

Dog is fact checking the liquor cabinet to prove the rumor she’s out of Victory gin until next liquor day.

Curious.

Does Deegee suffer from a rare form of Tourette syndrome brought on by chronic alcoholism?

“Now where did I *FACTCHECK!* put that *FACTCHECK* bottle? Oh, crap, I’m *FACTCHECK* out of ice again.”

Factcheck developing and backoff!

Pingback: Let Freedom Ring » Blog Archive » Rep. Winkler, Is Investigating Crow Wing County Corruption Frivolous?

No offense intended for any commenter on Mitch’s blog, but it is hard to have an enlightening exchange of viewpoints when one of the few liberal commenters here is obsessed with Limbaugh, Palin, Bachmann, Fox News and “factchecks” from liberal websites while the other side accuses the liberal commenter of drunk-posting.