Staff photo by Fritz Busch Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon speaks at the Brown County DFL Rural Caucus at Shirley’s Park on Clear Lake. Legislators Luke Frederick of Mankato and Emma Greenman of Minneapolis plus Brown County DFL Chairwoman Lori Sellner also spoke.

NEW ULM — Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon talked about increased voting rights and access and a “cloud of misinformation threatening Minnesota and the country” at a whistle stop talk at the Brown County DFL Rural Caucus at Shirley’s Park on Clear Lake Tuesday.

Simon praised Minneapolis Rep. Emma Greenman and Rep. Luke Frederick of Mankato for their legislative work he called critically important for democracy.

“Emma was part of the tremendous drive in democracy in the DFL platform. She was a chief author is so much that we did this legislative session. She owns a huge piece of it,” Simon said.

“I was a legislator before became secretary of state. There are legislators with very long legislative careers and don’t do in a career what she’s done in a little over a year. You haven’t seen the last of her amazing work.”

Simon said Mankato Rep. Luke Frederick was critical in democracy work including the expansion of early voting in Minnesota.

“I like to say I’m in the democracy business. It’s one heck of a time to be in that business,” he added. “Huge accomplishments at the last session include things like automatic voter registration, pre-registration for 16 and 17-year-olds, restoring the right to vote for 55,000 Minnesotans who left prison, and expanding early voting.”

Simon said election worker protection is in place so people running elections are not subject to intimidation, threats and harassment.

“We have an anti-disinformation provision that says those that intentionally lying about the election system and lying with the expressed purpose of getting in the way of someone’s right to vote or register to vote, you will be punished and penalized by the State of Minnesota,” Simon added.

“We finally have the ability for all of us to get on a mailed absentee ballot list that doesn’t require reapplication every two years,” said Simon. “This is extraordinary stuff we needed to do to meet the moment. Minnesota is a beacon, an outlier. In Florida, Texas, even Montana, has got rid of laws on the books for a long, long time that gave people voting access. They’re making it harder to register to vote and vote from home or as an absentee.”

Simon said there is a “cloud of misinformation threatening Minnesota and the country.”

“Minnesota leads the nation in voting. It’s what we do best. We’ve got to lead with the truth,” he added.

Rep. Greenman said some of the recent politics is not democracy but enough people voted in 2022 to support democracy, protect personal freedom and govern in a way to solve problems.

“Get rid of dark money so it doesn’t interfere with our elections. When monopolies have too much power, it’s at the expense of common people,” said Greenman. “A number of states are restricting voting especially for black, brown and disabled folks.”

“Democracy is not a spectator sport. It’s something we practice. We need a legislature and Congress that says every voice matters.”

“Every vote matters,” said Mankato Rep. Luke Frederick.

“People are finally talking about mental health. Children are talking about what started them thinking about suicide. It’s a powerful thing. Every person has a story,” he added.

“We’ve established the first Blue Cross Center for Rural Mental Health at Minnesota State University,” said Frederick.

The facility is dedicated to improving access to behavioral healthcare for outstate residents with research, workforce development, continuing education and customized training.

“Don’t forget people can change. I grew up in a super conservative community. We can’t give up in this area,” said Southwest Minnesota State instructor Anita Gaul who filed to run for state Senate last year. She filed to run of office on the last day and got 28% of the vote.

Brown County DFL Chairwoman Lori Sellner said the late Larry Czer of New Ulm “would want us to continue work on making things more inclusive.” Czer was active in the Brown County DFL, was a Martin Luther College English professor and women’s basketball coach.