Minnesota's voter outreach director went on Somali TV and walked viewers through exactly how to vote in Tuesday's election — and the one thing she never said, in a segment now seen by close to a million people, is that only United States citizens may vote. Melanie Hazelip, the Minnesota Secretary of State's voter outreach director, appeared on Somali TV of Minnesota on October 26 to explain early voting and same-day registration, days before the election.
"If you're already registered to vote, you don't need to bring anything with you," Hazelip told viewers. "You just show up to your early voting location, which is usually the county office or City Hall. Minneapolis and the bigger jurisdictions have a lot of extra places where you can go, like a lot of libraries or community centers. As long as you're registered to vote, you don't need to bring anything with you." For those not registered, she added: "If you have a Minnesota ID that is updated, that's all you need to bring with you. If you don't have that, there is a list of documents on our website that you can find. You still have options to get registered same day."
What the segment did not state is the law's first requirement. Minnesota law requires U.S. citizenship to vote — but it does not require real-time proof of citizenship at the polling place. Since a 2023 law signed by Governor Tim Walz, Minnesota issues driver's licenses and state IDs to residents regardless of immigration status, and those IDs carry no citizenship indicator. A registered voter in a precinct may also vouch for the residency of up to eight other people. "Citizenship is required by law. Real-time proof is not," retired Navy intelligence officer Phillip C. Parrish wrote as the clip spread — adding, in a second post, that the state "didn't just open the loopholes. They explained them on Somali TV." The clip, posted by the account End Wokeness, drew roughly three-quarters of a million views within days, and the backlash has renewed attention on the SAVE America Act, which President Trump has repeatedly urged Congress to pass and which would require documentary proof of citizenship to register for federal elections and photo ID to cast a ballot.
The Secretary of State's office defended Hazelip in full. It said the office "provides information and resources on Minnesota election laws to hundreds of nonpartisan community groups every year as a part of our regular voter engagement efforts," that Hazelip "provided accurate information about Minnesota election laws and how eligible voters cast their ballots," and that her "accurate remarks have been misinterpreted and misrepresented by political actors online." On the narrow facts of Minnesota procedure, the office is right about what she said: a registered Minnesota voter genuinely may cast a ballot bringing nothing at all.
For Minnesota voters, that is precisely the argument. What Hazelip described is not a mistake — it is the system as the state built it, explained on television to one specific audience, with the citizenship requirement left unsaid. Whether a system that runs on the honour of the person registering is a system that can be trusted with a close election is the question Minnesota voters are now arguing about, days before they use it.
📰 ProfiloPolitics Member News — choose your news, share it, earn credit: https://white-curlew-963569.hostingersite.com
Join ProfiloPolitics on Telegram
Get the news as it breaks — follow our Telegram channel for every story, first.
Follow @profilopoliticsnews