Steve Simon says security a "huge priority" for Election Day

MINNEAPOLIS — With the election just over three weeks away, concerns are mounting about threats to the election system nationwide.

In Oklahoma, an ISIS sympathizer was arrested for plotting a violent attack during the election.

The office of Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon has also been targeted . Last month, they received a letter with a white powdery substance from a group calling itself the United States Traitor Elimination Army. More than 20 other states received envelopes from that group.

The substance turned out to be harmless , but the FBI is continuing to investigate.

Simon says he is working on making sure both mail-in voting and in-person voting will be safe for all Minnesotans.

"Security is a huge huge priority for us. We now have in our office a dedicated team that helps with physical security, physical security not only with the election but with the other 364 days in the year," Simon said. "Just a few years ago we never had to do that."

So far, Simon's office has sent out more than 600,000 absentee ballots, and more than 220,000 Minnesotans have already voted.

This year in Minnesota, a new law registers people to vote when they apply for a driver's license. In the summer, Simon reported a glitch in that system and that 1,000 people who were not eligible to vote were registered.

Simon's office caught the mistake and took those people off the list of registered voters.

Simon called the issue a "glitch" and said two people — not one — will review each one of those applications.

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