Minnesota Secretary of State election, 2014

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Minnesota Secretary of State Election

Primary Date: August 12, 2014

General Election Date: November 4, 2014

November 4 Election Winner: Steve Simon

Incumbent prior to election: Mark Ritchie

Minnesota State Executive Elections Top Ballot Governor • Lieutenant Governor • Secretary of State • Attorney General Down Ballot Auditor

The Minnesota Secretary of State election took place on November 4, 2014. Incumbent Mark Ritchie (D) was first elected in 2006 and won re-election in 2010. Although eligible for re-election in 2014, Ritchie said in a June 2013 statement that he would not run for a third term.

The race to replace Ritchie featured Democratic candidate Steve Simon, Republican candidate Dan Severson, Libertarian Party candidate Bob Odden and Independence Party candidate Bob Helland. Severson had previously run against Ritchie in 2010. Simon won election to a four-year term.

A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Minnesota utilizes an open primary system, in which registered voters do not have to be members of a party to vote in that party's primary.

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

Candidates

General election

Steve Simon
Dan Severson
Bob Odden
Bob Helland

Did not file

Mark Ritchie - Incumbent

Defeated in the primary

Dick Franson
Gregg A. Iverson
David A. Singleton

Results

General election

Secretary of State of Minnesota, 2014
Party		Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Steve Simon	47%	901,450
	Republican	Dan Severson	45.9%	879,022
	Independence	Bob Helland	4.9%	94,065
	Libertarian	Bob Odden	2.1%	40,729
	Nonpartisan	Write-in votes	0.1%	1,134
Total Votes				1,916,400
Election results via Minnesota Secretary of State

Primary election

Democratic primary

Minnesota Secretary of State, Democratic Primary, 2014
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Steve Simon	42.7%	65,634
Dick Franson	29.1%	44,700
Gregg A. Iverson	28.3%	43,478
Total Votes		153,812
Election results via Minnesota Secretary of State.

Republican primary

Dan Severson was unopposed for the Republican nomination.

Independence Party primary

Minnesota Secretary of State, Independence Party Primary, 2014
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Bob Helland	51.5%	3,059
David A. Singleton	48.5%	2,879
Total Votes		5,938
Election results via Minnesota Secretary of State.

Campaign themes

All four candidates for Minnesota Secretary of State expressed their views about issues facing Minnesota voters. The following sections quote public statements verbatim from candidate websites.

Bob Helland

“	What I believe we need and don't need in Minnesota: We need access to the polls for everyone who is eligible to vote and wants to do it. We need cost-effective solutions for fighting voter fraud and increasing voter awareness. We don't need unnecessarily restrictive voter access measures like photo identification. We need a technology candidate for critical state needs in elections, business services and other functions. We need a business services candidate for the busiest part of the office's role and for state economic growth. We need a fair and independent chief elections officer. We need to educate our young citizens by providing education resources that meet them on their platforms. We need modernization in state government systems and processes. We need positive relationships with federal, state, local, nongovernmental and private sector partners. We need independent politicians who execute their constitutional and statutory roles. We don't need partisan political agendas interfering with responsibilities to serve. We need civil discourse and citizen participation in campaigns for political office. We need young people to become involved in civics and participate in public and private sector leadership. We need to reconsider the institutionalization of political parties and consider ranked-choice voting. We need to lighten up and have a little more fun!	”
—Bob Helland's campaign website, (2014)

Bob Odden

“	Victimless Crimes Eliminate taking away individual voting rights for being convicted of a felony for a victimless crime. Eliminate the removal of a persons voting rights for being convicted of a felony involving a victimless crime. This would include non-violent marijuana convictions. This would significantly reduce the number of minorities that can't vote. Military Personnel Votes Ensure that military personnel get to vote Get ballots to out of state military personnel in time and back again so they are not disenfranchised. Presently, only a small percentage of the military get to have their vote count. SOS Office Security Increase SOS office security As SOS I will carry a side arm on the capital grounds. I will also encourage staff members to do so as well. The basis for all human rights is property, with your most important possession being yourself. If you own yourself, and I believe you do, then you have a right to defend yourself. I want to help people to understand this. SOS Business Side Make the SOS office more business friendly Set up or encourage through the SOS office online forums so people who have gone through the process can help others who are going through the process for the first time. Have an online improvement suggestion box for the public to make comments to. Changes to SOS Require SOS to be more responsive to public Require the SOS to respond within a certain time frame on allegations concerning voter fraud. Require the SOS to work with individual/organizations making the allegations until the matter is cleared up. Require the SOS to be nonpartisan on all ballot issues.	”
—Bob Odden's campaign website, (2014)

Dan Severson

“	First One Hundred Days Call for an audit of the voting system by the Legislative Auditor. Call for a legal compliance audit to investigate why the Secretary Of State office had three court-adjudicated legal violations over the last 3 years. Institute a panel of County Attorneys that review voting complaints and delegate to a review board for further processing, assigning for prosecution when appropriate. Establish a private sector panel of business leaders and small business owners tasked with identifying barriers to fledgling businesses. Promote legislation to remove those barriers. Increase the military vote participation from 5% in 2010 to 80% or more like the rest of Minnesota. Promote poll books and voluntary Photo ID at the polls to make voting quicker and easier. Support legislation for enacting Provisional Ballots to validate eligibility prior to casting a vote that is included in the count as required by the Minnesota State Constitution.	”
—Dan Severson's campaign website, (2014)

Steve Simon

“	Steve Simon has a plan for improving the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office. Learn more about how he stands on issues relevant to the office. Expand access to voting If you’re an eligible voter in Minnesota, it should be as easy as possible to vote. That’s why Steve supports early voting and other efforts to increase participation. Remove barriers to voting Some people want to make it harder to vote. Steve will be a strong voice against those efforts. That’s why he opposes all initiatives to end same-day registration. And it’s why he supports an easier path for voter registration. Modernize business services Steve believes that businesses small and large need a Secretary of State’s office that uses technology to ease the creation of new businesses and new jobs. Making the Secretary of State’s technology platform more “business friendly” will be a top priority for Steve. Strengthen protection for victims of domestic violence The “Safe at Home” program, which the Secretary of State administers, is an address confidentiality program for domestic abuse victims. As a legislator, Steve has made the program stronger. As Secretary of State, he’ll defend those hard-won gains. Most importantly, be a Secretary of State for ALL Minnesotans The Office of the Secretary of State should be dedicated to serving Minnesotans of all backgrounds and affiliations. Steve believes that fairness and integrity matter most; not political advantage.	”
—Steve Simon's campaign website, (2014)

Campaign media

Bob Helland

Bob Helland ad: The Independents

Past elections

2010

2010 Race for Secretary of State - General Election
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	a Mark Ritchie	49.1%
	Republican Party	Dan Severson	45.6%
	Independent	Jual Carlson	5.2%
	Write-In		0.1%
Total Votes			2,035,365

2006

2006 Race for Secretary of State - General Election
Party		Candidate	Vote Percentage
	Democratic Party	a Mark Ritchie	49.1%
	Republican Party	Mary Kiffmeyer	44.2%
	Independent	Bruce Kennedy	3.7%
	American Independent Party	Joel Spoonheim	3.0%
Total Votes			2,137,643

Campaign finance

Comprehensive donor information for this election has been collected by Follow the Money. Based on available campaign finance records, the candidates raised a total of $491,558 during the election. This information was last updated on May 22, 2015.

Campaign Contribution Totals
Candidate	Office	Result	Contributions
Steve Simon	Minnesota Secretary of State		$360,757
Dan Severson	Minnesota Secretary of State		$126,392
Bob Helland	Minnesota Secretary of State		$4,409
Dick Franson	Minnesota Secretary of State		$0
Gregg Iverson	Minnesota Secretary of State		$0
Bob Odden	Minnesota Secretary of State		$0
David A. Singleton	Minnesota Secretary of State		$0
Grand Total Raised			$491,558

Key deadlines

Deadline	Event
May 20, 2014	First day of candidate filing period
June 3, 2014	Last day of candidate filing period
August 12, 2014	Primary election
November 4, 2014	General election
November 25, 2014	State Canvassing Board meeting to certify election results
January 5, 2015	Inauguration day for state executive officials in general election

Recent news

This section links to a Google news search for the term "Minnesota + Secretary + State + election"

Minnesota Secretary of State Election News Feed

See also

• Minnesota Secretary of State
• Minnesota state executive official elections, 2014
• State executive official elections, 2014

External links

Suggest a link

• Office of the Secretary of State of Minnesota