Secretary of State candidate Tad Jude aims to 'clean up" MN fraud

Welcome back. Many races we're watching leading up to election day. Republican Ted Jude is challenging incumbent Secretary of State Steve Simon in the Minnesota Secretary of State race. Ted Jude joins us now. Thank you for joining us on Sunday. Thank you, Leah. I know you're busy and things are, it's, you know, nine days left. Yeah, we're counting them and going full speed ahead. Lots going on. We've talked to Secretary of State Steve Simon, obviously, you know, been the Secretary of State for a while. He's always said that, you know, the elections are secure. But this year he's also planning for the potential of federal interference, potential of that. How concerned are you for something like that? You know, we've had federal monitors election after election after election in Minnesota and civil rights are very important. So that's what they're watching for they want to make sure that people have access to polling places that you have interpreters we have where you need interpreters that handicapped are accessible and it's it's important i think to have eyes on the ballot you know that it's important to have people have transparency and have accountability and and i know secretary simon has said well you know we don't only have other levels of government the state supreme court said you know he has to listen to cities for example on poll pads and he has to work with townships and counties he can't control everything just from the secretary of state's office so what specifically would you want to change that he that you think that he's not doing well i support photo id to go vote secretary simon doesn't support photo id to go vote i support having the election um yeah the voting rolls cleaned up. I mean, we need to work with the townships and the cities and the counties and the federal government to make sure you're 18, you're living in Minnesota, you're a legal U.S. citizen. Importantly, that you're alive. Those are things that are important in the voting rolls. And I know Secretary of State doesn't want to work with other levels of government, but we have to allow that. We have to work with them. What are your thoughts on, we've had some impressive numbers coming in already for the early voting, more than 419,000 ballots have already been accepted. Your thoughts on those numbers? We Minnesotans are known for being involved civically and I want people to get out and vote. They should get out early, you know they should bank their ballot, and if you don't get out there November 3rd I think November 3rd is going to be a change election in Minnesota, we need to tune up state government, we need to make sure that we fight fraud, and it starts in the Secretary of State's office. Secretary of State not only takes care of elections they register businesses and we've had businesses, unfortunately we call it fraud tourism, people come here from other states or other countries to take advantage of the needy the the mom that needs help with child care or someone who needs food for their for their children. We've had that fraud problem here and the first opportunity to stop it is the Secretary of State's office where businesses file. That's where they first filed to do business in Minnesota and you know the executive council with the Secretary of State is on That's been nowhere to be found for the last 12 years. I mean they have not had an effective check on Governor Walz where state government has gone and we have a fraud problem and we need to address that. Nine days left. What does your next week and a couple days look like? You know, I love to doorknock, and we've had great weather for doorknocking and visiting with people. I'm going to community events. I enjoy any opportunity to visit with people about the issues before the state. You know, one of the issues that has come up in the state, of course, is we haven't had a vote on the state flag. And that goes through the Secretary of State's office. uh so we have, I think elections we need to clean up but the fraud problem has to be addressed just to make sure government works and get a vote on our state flag. All right Ted, Jude, thank you, we appreciate your time and we will have Secretary of State Steve Simon, he'll actually be on our show uh next Sunday, so we appreciate your time we know it's precious right now so okay