In a poem of eleven shaped verses, Thomas Hardy famously called the sinking of the Titanic by an iceberg "The Convergence of the Twain."
I recalled that wording this morning when I read Catharine Richert and Curtis Gilbert's masterful reporting in Election deniers in Minnesota are training some election judges.
One name in the report caught my attention, as the man played a starring role in a Rochester-area story connected with the MN Reformer story: Inflammatory anti-CRT mailers sent to Minnesota suburban voters.
. . . .Olmsted County Election Integrity is part of a widespread effort across the country by people who doubt the legitimacy of the 2020 elections and who’ve pushed hard in this election cycle to recruit and install poll workers who share their beliefs. . . .
Roger Mueller, chair of Olmsted County Election Integrity, said his organization has done nothing wrong and argues the government is acting like it has something to hide.
“They're not complying with our data requests or anything else. So what else are you gonna do?” he said. “Are you going to just give up and suck your thumb? Or are you going to push a little harder, and I'm going to push a little harder.”
The county says it has provided details and data to Mueller’s group, which has falsely claimed that the county’s 2020 election results didn’t add up. . . .
Mueller was a character in two Post Bulletin stories published earlier this week. In the first, Campaign complaint filed against DFL House candidate Kim Hicks, Matthew Stolle reported:
A Stewartville resident has filed a campaign practices complaint against state House candidate Kim Hicks, alleging that the DFLer is distributing materials that falsely portray Democratic congressional candidate Jeff Ettinger as running for “re-election” and giving him an unfair advantage in the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
Roger Mueller writes in his complaint that Hicks, who is running in House District 25A against GOP Wendy Phillips, “knowingly” distributed campaign literature advertising that Jeff Ettinger was up for “re-election when he is not.”
The complaint was filed Monday, Oct. 31, 2022, with the state Office of Administrative Hearings. The complaint has since been assigned to an Administrative Law Judge Jim Mortenson for review. He has three business days to decide whether the facts of the case warrant a hearing.
Mueller serves as chairman of the Olmsted County Election Integrity Group. The group recently sought the removal of 3,700 people from active voter rolls before the Nov. 8 election because of an alleged mismatch between Olmsted County voter history records with a national database of address changes. . .
Administrative Law Judge Jim Mortenson kept to the timeline, Stolle reports in Judge dismisses campaign complaint against DFL candidate Kim Hicks:
An administrative law judge has dismissed a fair campaign practices complaint against state House candidate Kim Hicks, ruling that the facts as submitted were insufficient to show that the DFL candidate violated Minnesota law.
Hicks, a disability advocate who is running in House District 25A against GOP Wendy Phillips, was accused in a complaint of distributing materials that the complainant alleged falsely portrayed Democratic congressional candidate Jeff Ettinger as running for re-election and giving him an unfair advantage.
The complaint was filed last Monday by Roger Mueller, a Stewartville resident and chairman of the Olmsted County Election Integrity Group. . . .
As Bluestem reported in Make Liberty Win's independent expenditures bring nastygram money to the Gopher State, Hicks and her Republican opponent, Wendy Phillips, were included in the Make Liberty Win/Young Americans for Liberty independent expenditure campaigns.
Another one of Make Liberty Win's targets, Brad Tabke, faced a "re-elect" complaint, which was also dismissed. Earlier in October, Alyssa Huglen reported for SWMedia in Three-judge panel dismisses campaign complaint against Tabke:
A panel of administrative law judges on Wednesday, Oct. 12, dismissed a campaign complaint accusing House District 54A candidate Brad Tabke of violating state campaign law.
The complaint alleged Tabke, a Democrat, violated the Fair Campaign Practices law by using the term “reelect” in digital campaign ads from August, despite him not being the incumbent candidate.
The complainant, Kari Mortensen, is the wife of Rep. Erik Mortensen, R-Shakopee, one of Tabke’s opponents in the general election. She filed the complaint against Tabke on Aug. 31. . . .
Completely a coincidence that these stories seem to converge.
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