4 years of more questions than answers
How many absentee ballots appeared to be missing on Nov 29th, 2020?
Here are just a few of the questions that haven’t received satisfactory answers over the last four years. And a few questions for general research.
The answers to these questions may form the background for future storytelling because there's a lot to unpack.
Meantime, please consider these questions as it pertains to your role, whether advocate (citizen), representative (town board, city council, county commission, legislator, MN Sec of State), administrator (city clerk, county auditor), employee of the state/county/city/town (city attorney), election worker (election judge, poll challenger, absentee ballot board member), and media (reporter).
Was it the purpose of the last four years to bring all these questions fully into the open? To see if we could step up to the challenge? To see whether anyone would have the courage to be the change they seek?
Let’s take these questions starting from the beginning of the election process all the way through to election day and the post election reviews and certifications.
These questions are obviously not exhaustive. Many have been asked, few have been satisfactorily answered. It has been said:
A government can be judged by how it administers elections. If it poorly runs elections, what should the public think about the rest of its operations?
Public Accuracy Tests
Are the county’s public accuracy tests (PAT) for the primary and general election for 2024 published online?
Are the city/town’s PATs published online?
Did the PAT’s use a statistically significant number of ballots?
List the other flaws inherent in the PAT, also known as the Logic & Accuracy test.
Could an intelligent programmer design software to perform one way during the PAT (which occurs at least several days prior to the election) and another way on election day?
What percentage of each county’s, city’s, town’s tabulators are required to be tested?
Prior to that, who certifies this equipment? What does this certification process entail?
What has Clay Parikh (9 years employee of a certified testing lab) stated about the security of these systems? What did Parikh demonstrate during a recent Georgia hearing?
How many county’s/city’s/town’s tabulators include Verizon R2 modems?
Does the presence of these modems automatically de-certify the equipment for use in Minnesota elections?
Are the electronic poll pad certifications and testing available to the public?
Are the electronic poll pad (KNOWiNK) testing results published online?
How long will it take through records requests to obtain any of the above?
Early Voting and Absentee Voting
What happened in 1987?
What happened in 2016 to the thresholds established in 1987? (Outside metro precincts with fewer than 1,000 registered voters, metro areas with fewer than 400, could opt for mail-in only.)
Are there 1,000+ precincts (out of 4,000 statewide) whose voters may ONLY vote by mail (mail ballots can be hand delivered, but no in-precinct election day voting allowed)?
What are the implications of no-excuse mail-in balloting?
List the ways that chain of custody can be broken.
Are absentee ballots under constant surveillance? Can proof of this be provided to the public in advance of election day?
What training do absentee ballot board members go through for signature verification?
Has anyone ever failed the training?
Are absentee ballot boards balanced in all counties? (Balanced means containing election judges from more than one major political party.)
Under what circumstances can counties simply appoint their own staff to process absentee ballots during the 46-day early voting period?
Is Hennepin County currently facing a complaint/lawsuit because of an unbalanced ballot board?
Is it legal to Guard the Ballots? (Minn Stat §209.05)
Which candidate first invoked the use of this statute and what was the initial response from the Office of the Secretary of state? What was concluded?
How many other candidates are currently Guarding the Ballots?
When can mail-in absentee ballots be put into the tabulator?
Did the MN Supreme Court rule that putting ballots into the tabulator does not mean they are being counted/tallied?
Is it possible for ballots to be put through tabulator/scanned without a ballot image being stored and without a cast vote record being created?
Are absentee ballots placed through tabulator prior to election day put through the tabulator again?
Should tabulator modems be active during early voting?
Can tabulator modems be toggled on/off during early voting?
Does the presence of tabulator modems effectively de-certify the tabulators?
How many times did county officials and media spokespeople and electronic vendors say that election equipment is not networked or not connected to the internet?
If tabulator modems are active during early voting, who can access the tabulator data?
In 2020, 25 days after the election, when reviewing voter histories, how many absentee ballots reported officially were still not connected with the official statewide voter registration system (SVRS) managed by the Office of the Secretary of State? Answer: More than 700,000.
Can it be proven these ballots even existed? (Even if it could have been, it cannot any longer as some counties have destroyed ballots from 2020.)
If this 700,000 is deducted from official totals (as it cannot be proven), what is the actual voter turnout in Minnesota? Is it still among the highest nationally, or middle of the road?
When does early voting in person begin?
Are early votes put directly into the tabulator? Similar to above with absentee ballot board ballot tabulation, is the tabulator tallying these votes, in actuality? (And what does the MN Supreme Court believe is happening here?)
As with absentee tabulation prior to election day, who has access to these tallies given that most tabulators now have embedded cellular modems capable of being remotely accessed?
What was/are the administrator passwords for the well-known vendors in Minnesota?
List the cybersecurity credentials of IT employees and county auditors and election managers and anyone with access to the statewide voter registration system (SVRS).
Are there multiple modules, dashboards, or databases for absentee versus in-person election day voter data within the state's election system?
Will counties be publishing tabulator system logs to prove there has been no remote access in the days leading up to election day?
For what reasons can absentee ballots be rejected?
In the first few days of absentee voting in Minnesota’s 2024 general election, which congressional district, by far, had the most mail-in absentee ballots received? (Congressional District 3.)
Election Day
Does the Minnesota Constitution refer to Election Day?
Why are there 46 days of early voting? Why not 45? 47?
How many counties use electronic poll pads (internet-connected iPads from KNOWiNK that were hacked in 2016 during the rollout in Hennepin County) and how many counties partially use them and how many counties use paper rosters to check in voters?
Do electronic poll pads from KNOWiNK have any other features besides checking in voters?
What is the TotalVote feature set within KNOWiNK?
Describe the history of KNOWiNK and the software evolution.
Is Minneapolis still using PollChief software by Konnech?
What do we know about Konnech, its ownership, and data practices?
How long during election day are the KNOWiNK poll pads networked in any way to other systems, including to the internet? (For iPads which are not connected to the internet 100% of the time, how many times per day are the iPads synced with the central databases?)
Is it possible for the electronic poll pads to include voter data from other precincts other than the precinct they are being used in? Under what circumstances? Are logs of these cases available to the public?
What does the election judge oath say?
How is it possible for election judges to verify the vote TALLIES BY CANDIDATE, not only the total number of ballots in and out, which are listed on the summary tapes?
Why has the 94th Minnesota Legislature voted for a bill which has essentially banned hand counting by election judges, asking them to immediately seal ballots when the polls close?
Why do many voices recommend against hand counting when it is the prescribed method for deciding close races—Chapter 8235—and the method of choice in the post election review hand count? (Minn Stat §206.89)
What happens if an election judge questions the verification process they are asked to give a signature for on the summary tape? (Some have been fired for asking. Others have resigned on principle they are being asked to verify when it is impossible to do so.)
In 2024, what happens if one election judge or more declines to sign the summary tapes from the tabulators as a result of something they have witnessed that day, or simply because it truly is impossible to verify the TALLIES BY CANDIDATE unless able to ‘read the mind’ of the computer which tallied them?
Is election judge signing summary tapes a ministerial duty (see County Canvassing Board, to come)?
When is it legal for modem-enabled tabulators to transmit data either to the county or the Office of the Secretary of State?
Which is more secure, paper poll books or electronic poll pads connected to the internet?
What election records, if any, are made public immediately on election night?
What data, if any, is shared with the public from the precinct polling locations or from the counties or Office of the Secretary of State immediately on election night?
Post Election
Are electronic tabulators, many with modems enabled, mandatory?
When did they become mandatory?
Is the 93rd Minnesota Legislature’s amendment to §206.58 an example of an ex post facto law? (Is it fair that counties and cities and towns and school districts that decided to use electronic tabulators prior to 2023 should be locked in based on that decision?)
List just 10 of the known vulnerabilities to ES&S, Dominion, and Hart tabulators. (For reference, see the Tina Peters trial background or the Georgia hearing featuring Clay Parikh.)
Can tabulators with embedded modems be remote-accessed?
Are tabulator log files available to the public post election?
Are the incident report logbooks published online and available to the public?
Are the above considered prior to the County Canvassing Board meetings?
When are the County Canvassing Board meetings and what is their purpose?
What did the MN Supreme Court rule regarding the role of board members as part of the County Canvassing Boards in 2009?
What is a ministerial act?
According to Black’s Law, are ministerial acts define as duties NOT requiring independent thought or discretion?
Why would the certification of county level elections be considered ministerial (not requiring independent thought or discretion) by the MN Supreme Court? The function of canvassing election returns is ministerial, and it entails review only of the precinct summary statements of returns, not examination of
actual ballots. Coleman v. Ritchie, 759 N.W.2d 47 (Minn. 2009) - Ref Pg 167 of 2024 Statutes & Rules
According to Minn Stat §204C.41 NEGLECT OF DUTY; OTHER OFFENSES BY OFFICIALS; PENALTY., why is it mentioned that failing to make returns of votes, or who wrongfully refuses to make or deliver a certificate of election, or who falsely or corruptly performs any required act, to be assessed a felony?
Under what conditions can a member of the County Canvassing Board (for any of the 87 Minnesota counties) withhold their certification? Has this EVER been done? What happened?
Also at the County Canvassing Board for each of the 87 counties, how many precincts are pulled for the mandatory post election review audit hand count?
Which ballots are required for the post election review hand counts?
How many races are typically reviewed? How many are required? Can more races be done? Who decides?
How many cities and towns statewide have considered expanding and extending the post election review, that is, asking for additional precincts from their city or town to be included as well as additional ‘down ballot’ races to be included in the hand count?
Did Big Lake in Sherburne County arrange for one of its precincts to be included regardless of the random lot in 2022?
How many additional precincts from 7 cities in Anoka County have been requested? Answer: 17. (Oak Grove was the first to pass a resolution asking for all 4 of 4 precincts to be included and for down ballot races to be tallied. City of Ramsey soon followed asking for 6 of 9 precincts.)
Were the dates of any of the post election reviews in 2020 changed?
Were 800 ballots missing from the Dakota County post election review in 2020? Did this trigger additional reviews according to statute? (Minn Stat §206.89)
Did 2 Dominion printers arrive on the day of the Dakota County post election review?
Are there any conditions that can delay the Minnesota State Canvassing Board from meeting?
Why were more than 700,000 absentee ballots officially reported not yet connected with a voter in the statewide voter registration system (SVRS) 25 days after the election in 2020, on November 29, 2020, already FIVE (5) days after the MN State Canvassing Board had certified the election?
Has any Minnesota media outlet reported the above fact?
Do Minnesota statutes allow for certification without this work being done?
On what day does this work need to be complete?
Will this work be complete in 2024 prior to the County Canvassing Boards? Will it be complete prior to the MN State Canvassing Board?
Why has the only attorney willing to stand up to system by sending in the petition to pause the certification in 2020 had her law license suspended? How was this accomplished?
What other election-related challenges and other legal cases were brought between 2020 and 2024? Which, if any, were decided on the merits? If cases were decided in other ways, list them. If any case is not yet concluded, what is their status?
Election Records and Process
What is the process for the public to gain access to government records, including election data, according to Chapter 13 of the Minnesota Statutes?
Were any election records deleted prior to the 22-month retention requirement, 52 USC §20701 and §20702?
Did Hart Intercivic perform a software upgrade in early 2022 which archived the Chicago County 2020 General Election preventing cast vote records and ballot images from being accessed? (Yes, according to the Chisago County Auditor.)
Which other county’s software vendors performed software updates which removed election data in violation of 52 USC §20701 and §20702?
Were any cast vote records made public from the 2020 or 2022 election? How many counties?
Which county attorneys ended their correspondence with citizens upon being asked for the statute which prevents the cast vote records from being released?
Were any ballot images made public from the 2020 elections? The 2022 election?
When did the Minnesota Legislature ban the release of ballot images? Why? (Minn Stat §206.845)
What would an actual audit look like? How often are conversations explored about expanding the scope of the current built-in audit processes?
Would it be possible to review tabulator system logs, summary tapes, cast vote records, ballot images, and paper ballots to triangulate and verify tallies?
Why does our current system as a minimum actually review far less than 1% of oval selections? (Post election review audits call for a minimum 3% of precincts, only 2-3 races, and down ballot races are optional.)
Why does our current system ban ballot images from public view? (As of 93rd Minnesota Legislature.)
Why do county attorneys and administrators (almost all) refuse to give cast vote records from 2020 and 2022, even though the Minnesota Legislature has not banned their release and cast vote records have been a national standard since 2005?
Would it have been more efficient to publicly post cast vote records and ballot images (as Dodge County, Wisconsin), did instead of negatively answering hundreds of requests?
Were the Dodge County, WI ballot images used as an example of how to purchase ballot stock from SeaChange and then print ballots that are acceptable by electronic tabulators? Which recent documentary demonstrated this process?
Why did the Office of the Secretary of State (over the phone) suggest to at least one town clerk that towns (and cities) have no authority to ask for additional precincts to be included in the post election reviews?
What is implied when a County Auditor tells cities they must follow the law?
Which attorneys have failed to provide clarity with regard to Minn Stat §201.225?
Did Paul Linell (former Elections Manager, Anoka County, now Deputy Elections Director at OSS) provide clarity on Minn Stat §201.225?
Did MN Secretary of State, Steve Simon, provide clarity on Minn Stat §201.225?
Which secretary of state is the president of the National Association of Secretaries of State?
Who participated in the lawsuits which led to the consent decrees waiving witness signature requirements and extending deadline to accept mail-in ballots in 2020?
Could Judge Sarah Grewing (former Chief of Staff for Senator Amy Klobuchar and Chief of Staff for for Democrat Mayor Chris Coleman) have recused herself from NAACP v. Simon and LaRose v. Simon? Were more than 170 complaints filed making this point?
Which secretary of state was featured on the cover of Time Magazine? What was the article about?
Who called citizen advocates working without pay to bring awareness to the flaws in our election system 'a lost cause' during a 2024 summit put on by a well-funded Minnesota branch of a well-funded non-profit?
What have employees of the Office of the Secretary of State shared by email or over the phone with anyone able to influence the conversation of who has authority regarding electronic poll pads? Why would any of these conversations ignore the obvious clarity in the elections codes themselves? (Again, see §201.225.)
How is it that some counties use electronic poll pads, and some do not?
Why does Minn Stat §201.225 refer to revoking a notice of their use?
Did the Anoka County Elections Manager overstep by saying in the Anoka County Union Herald that Oak Grove had to use electronic poll pads?
Who truly has the authority to make a decision to use or not use these electronic poll pads? (Minn Stat §201.225)
Are cities and towns using the electronic poll pads fully informed about their full and TRUE capabilities and feature sets? (See KNOWiNK TotalVote, for just one instance.)
Are paper poll books or electronic poll pads (iPads) more secure?
Why would electronic poll pads be able to access voter data outside the precinct in question? (Minn Stat §201.225 references absentee voting, but what risks arise when this door is opened?)
Were the townships of Baldwin and Haven interested in hand counting their votes alongside (after) the machine tallies on election day in 2022? What were they told?
Then, in 2024, what did the letter from Sherburne County to Baldwin Township say?
Who created a video suggesting election judges could legally hand count immediately after the polls closed, to verify the machines?
When did the Minnesota Legislature change the election codes regarding the previous two questions?
Which county commissioner board in late 2021 requested the Office of the Secretary of State to assist them with an audit of their county? What was Secretary Simon’s response in January 2022?
What are the combined salaries of the employees of the Office of the Secretary of State?
What would a micro audit, of equipment, logs, and paper ballot hand count cost for a county the size of Crow Wing?
Political Parties
Explain which political party in Minnesota has done the most to raise awareness of the necessity of election integrity, providing details of actions taken and the impact of those actions.
Is is possible for the chair of a major political party to work with the Office of the Secretary of State to examine the source code of electronic vendors? Has this ever been seriously considered?
Which political party has disenfranchised duly elected delegates of the statutory precinct caucus, thereby breaking its own constitution and rules, and preceded to punish those who came to their aid? Is this an example of election interference?
How many times have political parties bent their own constitutions and rules to keep candidates that were not aligned with the establishment from receiving endorsements?
What is ActBlue? How long has it been used?
What percent of political donations through normal channels actually reach the candidate’s campaign?
The Future
List the countries that have banned electronic voting.
List the countries that have banned mail-in voting.
List the countries where it is fairly simple to register non-citizens for voting.
List the countries where algorithms have been found within the voter roll systems.
How long will Minnesota use the ERIC system? Mail-in? Electronics?
List the countries which only use hand marked hand counted paper ballots.
How long does it take those countries to count their ballots and report election results? Provide recent examples.
How fast is the piling method of hand counting in Minnesota? (See discretionary commissioner recounts in Morrison County, 2022.)
What is the total cost of ownership (including management, maintenance, and software upgrades) on an annual basis for a fully electronic election (current state) when compared with a system devoid of electronics that relies on paid election workers to hand count votes (now compare again with volunteers in small manageable precincts (100-500 registered voters) taking turns to tally the votes as part of their civic duty)?
Now compare again with elections being held on just a single day.
Is it possible to have a system where every voter knows 100% that their votes were counted 100% accurately and aggregated 100% accurately, in a verifiable way, with the entire process—within reason—on display to the public?
Would such a system leave all the questions above unanswered another four years?
How much is one voter’s ballot worth?
What is the value to society of real elections?