Good morning, and happy Friday.

For Minnesotans whose minds are made up in this fall’s election, they can cast their ballots starting today.MPR’s Brian Bakst reports that Minnesota is tied for the longest early-voting period in the country. South Dakota also starts 46 days out, with a few other states just behind. Several more begin two to three weeks from Election Day. Others have no official early voting at all. That duration of early voting is an issue in the campaign, with some candidates for election roles and other offices saying it lasts too long. People can request that an absentee ballot be sent to them or they can vote early in person at select locations. DFL Secretary of State Steve Simon, who is running for a new term, said it’s worked well since Minnesota lengthened its window from 30 days to 46 days in 2010. Simon’s Republican opponent for the state’s top elections job is Kim Crockett. She said the window for early voting is open too long. 

Gov. Tim Walz on Thursday called for the investigation of a Ramsey County judge who ordered the state to continue making payments to Feeding Our Future, the organization at the center of what is alleged to be the largest-in-the-nation COVID-19 fraud scheme.MPR’s Dana Ferguson reported the governor defended the Minnesota Department of Education’s response in uncovering misuse of payments that were intended to feed Minnesota children. And he said that department heads stopped payments to the group but later had to continue making them after Feeding Our Future sued the state for discrimination and won. Walz said he was “speechless” when Ramsey County Judge John Guthmann ruled in favor of Feeding Our Future in April of 2021. “I would hope there would be an investigation into that,” Walz said when asked if Guthmann should resign. Saying he understands the separation of powers and that he respected the judge’s decision, Walz told reporters, “I was speechless. (It’s) unbelievable that this ruling would come down, I did not really know what to say. Obviously, we had to honor it. But it was at that point in time, I said, ‘We have got to continue to push the federal government and the FBI to do the investigation.’” 

More: Sen. Roger Chamberlain, R-Lino Lakes, chairs the Senate Education Committee and has held several hearings devoted to the payments made through Feeding Our Future. In a news release, Chamberlain said the Walz administration is to blame for the fraud. “Lax oversight allowed bad actors to commit massive fraud and there were no appeals to the judge’s ruling,” Chamberlain said. “The problem is not in the judicial branch, it's in the Walz administration.” Scott Jensen, the Republican running to unseat Walz, said he would have appealed Guthmann’s ruling rather than letting it stand. “Did Tim Walz and his commissioners appeal the decision? Did they say, ‘Hold it, we’ve had something flagged, we rose it up to the level of recognition and consciousness?’” Jensen said. “It was at that time that he should’ve gotten involved, not today when he calls for the investigation of Judge Guthmann, and that’s what we’ve been seeing.”

Meanwhile, Jensen is calling Walz’s military record into question. Efforts to discredit the National Guard service of Walz date to his first campaign for Congress in 2006. Walz retired with a high rank in 2005. Jensen and his allies allege Walz left months before his unit was activated so he could avoid going to Iraq. Jensen said Thursday the service record is relevant because of controversy over how Walz used the Guard to quell civil unrest in 2020. “In my eyes, today is the day that Tim Walz is indicted for lack of leadership and an unwillingness to do his duty,” Jensen said. “And Minnesota needs to know about it and they probably won’t learn about it through debates.” Walz denied timing his retirement to a deployment. "I did my 24 years and I did my deployments,” he said after taking part in a ceremony dedicating Minnesota’s Medal of Honor Memorial. “And I don't know what more to say." Jensen didn’t serve in the military. He says he was drafted after turning 18. But he says he wasn't ordered to report because the Vietnam War was ending. He opted for college instead. 

State public safety officials now say there were at least 15 “swatting incidents” across Minnesota on Wednesday, in which schools were targeted by a series of hoax calls claiming there was a shooting or someone with a gun on campus. MPR News reports that schools across the state — including ones in St. Paul, Rochester, Mankato, Austin, Cloquet and International Falls — were targeted. On Thursday, state Public Safety Commissioner John Harrington said investigators believe a single person made the calls. "That is the information that we've received so far, is it looks like they're coming from a common IP address," he said. "We're still trying to work through the ... different back channels that that came through." State investigators are working on the case, he said. Officials have said it's a nationwide issue, with similar hoax calls reported in other states.