WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:05.960 First, we're going to have Tad Jude come up. He's running for Minnesota's Secretary of State. 00:06.640 --> 00:14.840 And I'd love to have him kind of talk about what the Secretary of State does as well as who he is and why he's running. 00:15.200 --> 00:15.600 Thank you. 00:17.120 --> 00:17.840 Thank you. 00:19.980 --> 00:27.780 Yeah, it's a real privilege to be here tonight and to be a part of your faith and freedom program. 00:27.780 --> 00:35.900 And I see the two of them being intertwined. If you have faith in Jesus Christ, it gives you freedom. 00:36.760 --> 00:48.140 And I've seen a real relationship between, if you go back, you know, I've got some legal training, I've got a law degree. 00:49.040 --> 01:01.180 I see our Creator giving us the natural law and the natural law gets reflected in our Declaration of Independence and in our Constitution, 01:01.760 --> 01:06.520 in the founding documents of our country and of our state. 01:07.520 --> 01:15.660 And eventually, hopefully the law that you and I live with 01:15.660 --> 01:24.660 and is applied in our daily lives reflect that Constitution and the way it gets applied. 01:25.060 --> 01:31.920 So it's all inspired by a deep faith in Jesus Christ and the blessings we've been given. 01:32.960 --> 01:37.900 And in any case, my name is Tad Jude. I'm running for Secretary of State. 01:39.100 --> 01:43.920 And yet I indicated I should probably tell you a little bit about what the Secretary of State does. 01:45.160 --> 01:50.540 And that's a good idea because I have been asked whether I'm running against Marco Rubio. 01:52.800 --> 01:59.120 And I have to... you know, that's one of the things I every once in a while get asked. 01:59.660 --> 02:05.500 But I'm running against Steve Simon. Steve Simon has been Secretary of State for the last 12 years. 02:05.820 --> 02:11.460 And he has a very low profile in state government, but it's a very important job. 02:11.460 --> 02:17.560 And you could ask the Speaker of the House, the Speaker of the House, Lisa DeMuth, 02:17.860 --> 02:29.820 has basically your elected speaker, I think, as a result of a big problem created 02:29.820 --> 02:35.820 by our Secretary of State, Steve Simon, at the beginning of the legislature last year 02:35.820 --> 02:40.440 when they organized, there were 67 Democrats, 67 Republicans. 02:41.600 --> 02:45.440 And the Secretary of State has asked to do a lot of ceremonial type things 02:45.440 --> 02:47.940 or administrative type things until they aren't. 02:49.840 --> 02:54.660 And they're big things, like organizing the Minnesota House. 02:55.760 --> 03:01.300 Supposedly the Secretary of State is to convene the Minnesota House, and that's it. 03:02.200 --> 03:04.200 That's what it says in the Constitution. 03:05.980 --> 03:12.040 But he went beyond that and was recognizing whether or not there was a quorum present. 03:12.960 --> 03:17.200 And that's something that's not delegated to the Secretary of State. 03:17.720 --> 03:20.660 So there was going to be a great big court case about this. 03:20.820 --> 03:25.260 And then, you know, for three weeks the Democrats didn't have to show up 03:25.260 --> 03:28.260 and were still paid to do nothing. 03:28.640 --> 03:31.160 In the Minnesota House, that was because of Steve Simon. 03:31.160 --> 03:40.320 But there are a lot of other things where the Secretary of State, I think, plays a critical role 03:40.320 --> 03:48.040 where he or she can put their hands on the machinery of state government 03:48.040 --> 03:52.900 in a critical and sometimes determinative way. 03:55.120 --> 04:01.760 Secretary of State is responsible for all the election administration in the state of Minnesota. 04:02.160 --> 04:07.380 And one of the things our Secretary of State has been refusing to do is to work with their partners 04:07.900 --> 04:10.500 in other levels of government, like the federal government. 04:10.820 --> 04:15.000 Our Department of Justice wants to clean up our voting rolls, 04:15.200 --> 04:19.840 make sure that in Minnesota, in order to vote, 04:20.660 --> 04:25.860 you need to be 18, you need to be a legal resident of Minnesota, 04:26.760 --> 04:28.820 you need to be a legal U.S. citizen. 04:30.940 --> 04:34.180 Importantly, you need to be alive, you know. 04:35.920 --> 04:38.760 And that's what the federal government is trying to determine. 04:39.500 --> 04:44.740 The federal government is trying to determine whether you're a legal U.S. citizen, whether you're alive 04:45.400 --> 04:46.860 in all those requirements. 04:46.860 --> 04:50.900 But the Secretary of State has to work with the townships, has to work with the counties, 04:51.520 --> 04:54.980 has to work with the school districts, has to work with the cities, 04:55.400 --> 04:59.300 has to work with the federal government to just clean up our voting rolls. 04:59.420 --> 05:02.140 And I will do that as Secretary of State. 05:02.640 --> 05:06.360 Our Secretary of State right now is in lawsuits. 05:07.580 --> 05:12.360 He's got a federal civil lawsuit where they're saying, 05:12.360 --> 05:14.600 you know, we want to have access to the voting records. 05:14.680 --> 05:17.280 He won't give them access to the voting records. 05:18.380 --> 05:25.280 It makes no sense because he's giving access to a non-profit that he pays a lot of money to 05:25.280 --> 05:29.300 that represents maybe half the states, not even that. 05:30.180 --> 05:37.340 But he won't use the federal government, what they call the save voting rolls 05:37.820 --> 05:43.760 in Washington, which he can use free to clean up the voting rolls. 05:44.160 --> 05:47.220 He won't do that. It doesn't make any sense. 05:47.540 --> 05:48.840 So anyway, that's one of the jobs. 05:48.940 --> 05:54.020 The other job, big job of the Secretary of State is to register businesses. 05:54.280 --> 05:59.340 And we've had a lot of fraudulent nonprofits operating in the state of Minnesota. 06:01.300 --> 06:06.080 Somehow we're so loosey-goosey, we have people coming here from other states 06:06.080 --> 06:08.840 to take advantage of Minnesota taxpayers. 06:09.860 --> 06:11.280 They'll come here from Pennsylvania. 06:11.960 --> 06:15.900 It used to be that Minnesota was known as a good government state. 06:16.800 --> 06:19.600 You know, we'd have openness, we'd have transparency. 06:21.380 --> 06:25.700 Now, people in Illinois or New Jersey or Louisiana, they look at Minnesota 06:25.700 --> 06:29.200 and they see taxpayer money available. 06:32.260 --> 06:35.420 So that's a big job of the Secretary of State. 06:36.380 --> 06:39.560 Secretary of State takes care of all the open appointments. 06:40.100 --> 06:43.100 So, you know, when you have a good Republican governor, 06:43.780 --> 06:49.560 you know, we can, you know, appoint good people to different boards 06:49.560 --> 06:51.880 and commissions in the state of Minnesota. 06:52.080 --> 06:54.000 That all goes to the Secretary of State's office. 06:54.840 --> 07:00.860 Secretary of State registers people, of course, to run for public office. 07:02.700 --> 07:06.880 I don't think our current Secretary of State is in a real good job of doing some of that. 07:07.500 --> 07:12.240 We had a legislator a couple of years ago who actually had a Wisconsin driver's license. 07:12.840 --> 07:17.680 And I don't think he lived in the district he was supposed to be representing in St. Paul. 07:19.440 --> 07:24.760 But, you know, I could go on and on about what Secretary of State does or doesn't do. 07:26.600 --> 07:30.660 I just want to give you a little bit of the background of my background. 07:30.900 --> 07:35.020 I was born in St. Cloud, the oldest of 11 children, 07:36.940 --> 07:41.600 and I took care of my little brothers and sisters a little bit. 07:42.200 --> 07:47.120 And I could tell you a story, yeah, I could tell you stories that go on and on and on. 07:47.920 --> 07:56.980 But I would go around with my mom and dad delivering grocery supplies to small businesses through a lot of central Minnesota. 07:57.680 --> 08:02.060 And I got to know the needs of small businesses doing that. 08:02.800 --> 08:08.660 And in fact, I do own a small business right now that's up and operating. 08:08.660 --> 08:15.000 And, you know, I'm also commander of a local American Legion post in Fridley. 08:15.560 --> 08:17.400 It's post-303. I'm a veteran. 08:20.420 --> 08:26.200 So I went on to law school and went to William Mitchell, St. Thomas College. 08:26.440 --> 08:28.220 I was worried for undergraduate. 08:30.540 --> 08:36.520 And I've really enjoyed being involved in public policy. 08:36.520 --> 08:40.560 Now, some people say, well, you've got a lot of experience, but what good does it do? 08:40.700 --> 08:42.900 You know, we don't need somebody with experience anymore. 08:43.960 --> 08:54.440 You know, I'll explain one of the bills I worked on in the legislature that I really think was a result of having a little experience. 08:54.600 --> 09:02.000 And that was a bill to include unborn children under the protection of Minnesota criminal law. 09:03.080 --> 09:14.480 So, you know, if you see an expectant mother getting beaten up to kill the unborn child, that is prosecuted by prosecutors today. 09:15.000 --> 09:17.900 And that's because of a bill I chief authored in the legislature. 09:18.720 --> 09:23.460 And that's one of the times I think experience was real important. 09:23.660 --> 09:29.280 Now, I went on from being in the legislature as a Hennepin County Commissioner for four years. 09:30.940 --> 09:33.140 Then I went on to be a district court judge. 09:34.060 --> 09:35.680 And I was a district court judge. 09:35.780 --> 09:41.500 And if you have questions about the court system, I'll be happy to give you my opinions on them. 09:42.400 --> 09:49.320 I've got a lot of opinions, but the main thing I want to do is to make things work. 09:49.660 --> 09:57.300 I want to have elections to be fair, open, transparent, and accountable. 09:57.980 --> 09:59.940 The same thing with our court system. 10:01.840 --> 10:04.200 And we can talk about that a little bit. 10:04.900 --> 10:09.500 So the area I represented in the courts, I was out in Stillwater most of the time. 10:09.660 --> 10:11.660 It was 11 years. 10:12.140 --> 10:17.280 But I was in Cambridge, or, yeah, Cambridge at least once. 10:17.540 --> 10:19.760 And I was up in Moira once. 10:20.020 --> 10:23.100 And I was up in Pine City and I'd be in Anoka. 10:23.400 --> 10:26.020 It was kind of, they call it the 10th district. 10:26.020 --> 10:31.840 And if you look at these districts, they don't make a lot of sense in some ways. 10:32.100 --> 10:39.300 And that's one of the things I think as Secretary of State I could have a little influence on. 10:39.620 --> 10:43.660 And I think my experience would be of some benefit. 10:46.340 --> 10:53.280 But there is one thing that I think has to be addressed that isn't talked about a lot. 10:53.340 --> 10:54.420 And it's a big problem. 10:55.140 --> 11:01.800 And that is when you go and vote on the back of the ballot for judges. 11:04.220 --> 11:08.460 How many think you need to have more information when you go vote on judges? 11:10.160 --> 11:13.940 Yeah, I mean, it's a blind ballot that you're casting. 11:15.160 --> 11:17.340 And we have to address that. 11:18.080 --> 11:21.700 Now, I brought with me tonight a couple of things. 11:21.700 --> 11:27.560 Now, I said I had a couple of minutes to speak, so I'm not going to take too long here. 11:28.720 --> 11:33.640 This is what you call the legislative manual or the blue book. 11:34.380 --> 11:36.360 It's put out by the Secretary of State. 11:36.580 --> 11:39.580 And you've got the Constitution of Minnesota in there. 11:40.860 --> 11:45.420 And you've got the founding documents of our country and of our state in here. 11:45.500 --> 11:50.040 And you have the election returns in there. It's very interesting to read this. 11:50.040 --> 11:55.020 But you find out that judges are supposed to be elected in Minnesota. 11:55.920 --> 11:59.040 So they call the back of the ballot an election. 12:00.520 --> 12:06.260 Now, how many people think that's an open and fair and informed election? 12:07.860 --> 12:10.100 And we pay a high price for that. 12:12.540 --> 12:17.720 We've got a Minnesota Supreme Court right now that has seven people on it, 12:17.720 --> 12:20.360 all appointed by Governor Dayton or Governor Walls. 12:21.900 --> 12:23.200 That's not fair. 12:23.660 --> 12:26.580 If you have a case before the Minnesota Supreme Court, 12:26.780 --> 12:34.160 you don't have no hope of getting an Antonin Scalia on the bench in Minnesota right now. 12:35.760 --> 12:38.360 You don't have any diversity of opinion. 12:38.360 --> 12:42.240 I mean, it might look like you have a, you know, 12:42.780 --> 12:47.100 the bar scene out of Star Wars up there on the Minnesota Supreme Court. 12:47.960 --> 12:48.840 A diverse group. 12:49.980 --> 12:52.940 But you don't have diversity of opinion. 12:54.300 --> 12:58.400 And elections should at least create some balance. 12:59.600 --> 13:03.840 And if you have a case before a court, you want to have an impartial court. 13:04.560 --> 13:07.380 You want to have an open court. You want to have a fair court. 13:07.380 --> 13:10.900 And those are things that should be talked about a little bit. 13:11.160 --> 13:11.520 Yes. 13:13.220 --> 13:15.320 Because that's not fair to the litigants. 13:15.440 --> 13:16.700 It's not fair to the taxpayer. 13:17.020 --> 13:20.180 It's not fair, really, to the court system. 13:21.940 --> 13:22.700 So we can do better. 13:23.360 --> 13:25.820 And I'd like to do that as Secretary of State. 13:26.920 --> 13:30.720 Now, so I think my experience would help a little bit in that area. 13:31.920 --> 13:33.480 You know, there are some things we can do. 13:37.100 --> 13:38.440 That's not my time, is it? 13:39.040 --> 13:39.560 Okay. 13:40.780 --> 13:42.060 I just wanted to make sure. 13:45.140 --> 13:47.400 Well, anyway, there are a few things. 13:47.960 --> 13:51.180 And, you know, I have had some experience running for election 13:51.180 --> 13:55.640 and have been able to do okay on the ballot. 13:55.760 --> 13:57.500 And I think that's important. We have to win. 13:59.560 --> 14:03.460 You know, I've been a winner in at least 10 general elections. 14:04.280 --> 14:06.100 You know, more primary elections. 14:07.100 --> 14:09.280 And that's what we need to do in Minnesota. 14:09.600 --> 14:13.660 I ran for Congress down in the Third District two years ago. 14:14.480 --> 14:17.660 And we were 5% better than the top of the ticket. 14:18.180 --> 14:19.860 And we do that across the state. We win. 14:22.040 --> 14:32.240 And in any case, you know, I'm running because I really love Minnesota. 14:32.240 --> 14:36.320 You know, I love God, love my family. 14:36.580 --> 14:38.180 Jackie and I live in Maple Grove. 14:39.620 --> 14:42.760 Kind of where 494-94 come together. 14:45.900 --> 14:48.120 And I think we can make a difference. 14:48.820 --> 14:50.140 We can improve our elections. 14:50.320 --> 14:52.840 We can have photo ID when you go vote. 14:53.820 --> 14:56.880 We could have the Minnesota version of the SAVE Act 14:56.880 --> 15:01.800 to make sure people are legal U.S. citizens when they go vote. 15:02.280 --> 15:04.320 We could have that on your driver's license. 15:04.480 --> 15:06.360 Now we have driver's licenses for everybody. 15:07.140 --> 15:11.080 But it doesn't indicate whether or not you're a legal U.S. citizen. 15:12.000 --> 15:13.640 I support paper ballots. 15:13.840 --> 15:18.480 I'd like to have, you know, look into having a watermark on the ballots 15:18.480 --> 15:19.760 to make sure they're legitimate. 15:20.960 --> 15:24.320 In the last election, they had 10 cases of ballots 15:24.320 --> 15:26.760 sitting out in a parking lot in the Dina City Hall 15:26.760 --> 15:29.060 just sitting there with nobody watching them. 15:31.020 --> 15:34.880 And we've got vouching. We have to get rid of vouching. 15:35.320 --> 15:37.660 Steve Simon has been going around the state 15:39.260 --> 15:41.080 advocating ranked choice voting. 15:41.800 --> 15:46.700 And ranked choice voting is going to be an incredible nightmare 15:47.820 --> 15:51.800 from the standpoint that you vote for three, four, or five people. 15:52.960 --> 15:54.500 And then they keep on counting. 15:54.920 --> 15:56.180 And then they keep on counting. 15:56.320 --> 15:57.460 And then they keep on counting. 15:57.460 --> 16:00.480 It doesn't make a lot of sense. 16:01.020 --> 16:06.320 I think it creates more gamesmanship and confusion, and you name it. 16:06.640 --> 16:09.120 But that's what Steve Simon has been advocating. 16:10.660 --> 16:17.640 Now the thing that I think is really a slap in the face of Minnesotans, 16:18.740 --> 16:23.020 if you look at this blue book, this is written by the Secretary of State. 16:23.020 --> 16:25.380 You can order one on the Internet. 16:26.180 --> 16:29.640 Get it sent to you if you send the money for shipping. 16:30.560 --> 16:33.640 Okay, I'm going to just point out to you. 16:38.930 --> 16:39.910 You open it up. 16:53.260 --> 17:00.280 Here on the dedication page, he dedicates it to his special project. 17:00.280 --> 17:06.100 His special project then gets a full-color section. 17:21.640 --> 17:27.100 His special project was replacing our historic traditional Minnesota flag. 17:29.360 --> 17:34.400 He was the only elected official that's had on the commission that decided 17:34.400 --> 17:39.080 on the design of the Minnesota flag. 17:41.340 --> 17:43.200 And I look at it. 17:44.100 --> 17:50.160 I mean, how many people would like to go back to our historic traditional Minnesota flag? 17:51.080 --> 17:52.760 I mean, this means something. 17:53.960 --> 17:55.240 You know, it means our history. 17:55.720 --> 18:00.520 It means honoring working men and women, our natural resources. 18:01.920 --> 18:05.180 We're going to have a vote on it when I'm Secretary of State, 18:05.180 --> 18:11.560 and I will dedicate the next blue book to having a vote on the Minnesota flag. 18:13.320 --> 18:15.560 So that is going to be a big issue. 18:18.930 --> 18:22.310 But with that, I think I've probably taken enough time here, 18:23.010 --> 18:28.410 and I'd be happy to visit about questions you might have about our court system 18:28.410 --> 18:30.470 or questions you might have about the race. 18:31.230 --> 18:32.330 So, thank you.