Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said today that legislation advancing in the House would strengthen Minnesota’s election system by using state and federal databases to help prevent those who are ineligible from registering or voting before elections take place.

"Individuals who are not eligible to vote should not be registered or able to cast ballots,” he said, noting that the legislation he advocates was passed Thursday by the House State and Local Government Committee.

The legislation would allow his office to compare voter registration applicants against the Minnesota Department of Corrections' list of felons. It would also allow staff to compare the statewide voter registration list against the Social Security death registry to identify Minnesota voters who died while outside of the state. It also authorizes the secretary of state to check the citizenship status of voters using Department of Public Safety data.

The text of the proposed legislation (HF 1053, SF660) is available here.