Is Brad Johnson Copy-Pasting Bad Advice from Steve Simon?
Electronic poll pads are NOT mandated, yet MNSOS Steve Simon and Anoka Attorney Brad Johnson say they are—is advice both accurate AND complete?
Recommendation to Check Work Provided by MNSOS: Key Details Omitted in Struggle for Poll Pad Choice
2013 electronic poll pad legislation passes with help from Representative Steve Simon.
2016, the Hennepin County rollout begins after Simon becomes MN Sec of State.
One city says No.
That's St. Bonifacius, citing 1) bad contract which can't guarantee no harmful code and 2) bad security, which was breached by Mayor, computer expert, during KNOWiNK proposal.
By 2018, many MN counties use KNOWiNK poll pads, but 20 don't, stay with paper. (Strangely, even though counties and cities by law have choice, many agreements done by staff, not by commission or council vote.)
Already a 10-year journey, part of larger plan?
In 2024, before the election, City of Oak Grove in Anoka County cancels electronic poll pad agreement with county.
Brad Johnson, Anoka County Attorney, sides with the Minnesota Secretary of State—says cities don't have a choice.
But how does Isanti County to north feature 2 municipalities with electronic poll pads and 17 with paper poll books? Are Isanti cities breaking the law? Would Secretary Simon and AG Keith Ellison really let them get away with that?
Attorneys are paid big $ to be detail-oriented. The MNSOS also happens to be an attorney, but famously omitted there was a separate database or fields for absentee and mail-in tracking in a 2019 court case—this huge blunder is also famously omitted from almost all media outlets in Minnesota.
Brad Johnson agrees with MNSOS, but why doesn't Johnson check Simon's work?
2024. Instead, after learning about Oak Grove's cancellation, Brad Johnson threatens election workers with felony if don't use electronic poll pads. Simon doesn't say Johnson is wrong to do so.
2025, the key question: Why does the MNSOS want electronic poll pads so much?
Maybe because Simon is President of the National Association of Secretaries of State. Simon has celebrated continuing to provide voter access, voter convenience, to top voter turnout nationwide.
At least that is the narrative. (Just as Simon's narrative is 'We have paper ballots' but OMITS the fact that computers count scanned images of those ballots AND those same ballot images are HIDDEN from public view as of 2023... further, obvious security measures like serialization/numbering or watermarks are not used on the paper.)
The legislation he has directly or indirectly influenced currently allows (to name only a few)...
- no-excuse absentee
- same-day registration (usually about 7-10% of all voters)
- automatic voter registration for 16-17-year olds
- a permanent absentee/mail-in list
- MANDATES for electronic tabulators
- ballot images HIDDEN (these are receipts from mandated tabulators)
- absentee/mail-in ballots for forty-six (46) days
- delivery until 8pm on election night, and
- strong suggestions against election worker hand counting without overtly outlawing
Are the electronic poll pads the weak link? The Trojan Horse?
Why was Mayor Weible of St. Bonifacius, in 2016, during initial rollout, merely threatened with lawsuit, but not triggered?
Why aren't electronic poll pads mandated in statute?
Why are people trying to say they are?
What the Statutes Actually Say
500 pages of election law is way too much. Many don't read. But AI LLMs can read fast and provide reference.
Use the tools. Try Claude.ai, ChatGPT.com, Grok.com. Upload document below. For example, when attaching the following PDF and asking Grok, ~Are electronic poll pads mandated?, it replies:
Minnesota Statutes do not mandate electronic poll pads, offering municipalities and counties a choice. Key sections like §201.225 ("Electronic Roster Authorization") and §206.58 ("Authorization for Use") use permissive language, implying discretion. Additionally, §201.221, subd. 4, under "Rules," likely governs roster management standards but does not indicate a mandate, reinforcing local flexibility in choosing paper or electronic systems, subject to state compliance.
Anyone can look for themselves, including city and county attorneys, to see not only what I have found (and others) but also the fingerprints of the MNSOS, Steve Simon, contributing to these election codes during his 10 years as a representative for MN House District 46B, 2005-2015, and continued influence as MNSOS from 2015 to present day.
20 years of electronic centralization.
- Electronic tabulators, MANDATED as of 2023
- Electronic voter registries and databases, and
- Electronic poll pads (such as iPads from KNOWiNK) which can monitor and modify election data in real-time
Which ALL have internet access throughout elections, for real-time monitoring and modification.
Too bad electronic poll pads are NOT mandated... but if they were, maybe the public would finally catch on to the game.
The FACT of internet connectivity of tabulators, electronic voter registries and databases, and electronic poll pads, could be disproven by showing logs of the above equipment on election day. But such data, I think, cannot be provided, because it would prove the opposite, that my theory—and I'm far from alone on this—is correct. Such data being hidden from the public, which could resolve a serious question, is yet another blunder of current local and state government.
Accurate AND Complete?
To emphasize, Brad Johnson, Attorney for Anoka County, should check his work. Is info he's getting from MNSOS Steve Simon both accurate AND complete?
If not, then how can Brad Johnson copy-paste a recommendation to responsibly inform his election staff, county auditor, and commissioners relating to electronic poll pad and paper poll book choice?
The same recommendation is made for all other county and city/town-level attorneys.
Why?
To repeat for emphasis: the current MNSOS Steve Simon has already in a court hearing in 2019 OMITTED key details about the absentee ballot database, which he must have known about, or else is very incompetent.
Then came 2020. MNSOS covers up, to this day, the fact that there were seven hundred thousand (700,000) MORE votes than voters in 2020 general election, according to his office's own data, the official record in the Statewide Voter Registration System (SVRS), on November 29, 2020... for those keeping track, that is 25 days POST election and 5 days AFTER Simon and 4 others certified Minnesota's election despite a petition to the MN Supreme Court asking for a delay to resolve errors and omissions.
Almost all media outlets, liberal, conservative, and other, whether or not directly owned by hedge funds or big players, have let Simon off the hook so far. It's past time county-level and city-level attorneys stood on principle and helped their counties navigate according to the current election codes, before the codes once again get changed by [s]elected legislators in a multi-issue or omnibus-type bill.
