EL Poll Pads by Force?
All tyrannies rule through fraud and force...
Why were electronic poll pads rolled out ILLEGALLY, instead of by proper approvals of governing bodies as required by state statutes?
All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.
—George Orwell (Eric Blair)
When Anoka County initially brought in electronic poll pads, the commissioner body did NOT vote on them. Only one (1) of 21 cities voted. That city, Oak Grove, has since canceled (twice) their electronic poll pad agreement. When Oak Grove canceled the first time, prior to the 2024 general election, with guidance from MN Secretary of State Steve Simon, the County responded:
"The law is clear that individual or local official decisions not to follow the head election official's direction and interference with the election process will result in serious legal trouble for those involved. Refusing or declining to follow the head election official's direction to use electronic rosters and pollbooks in all Anoka County precincts would constitute a violation of numerous election laws... any... who refuses to comply with the election laws is also guilty of a felony." (emphasis added)
—From unsigned letter to all Anoka County election workers (judges) from Anoka County Elections Department prior to Nov 5, 2024 general election
If commissioners did not vote and most cities did not vote, were the electronic poll pads authorized, adopted, accepted, rolled out, deployed, and used in elections ILLEGALLY?
How Many MN Counties ILLEGALLY Deployed?
A bigger question: how many other MN counties between 2016 and 2018 deployed KNOWiNK's electronic rosters/poll-pads illegally? Could it be about sixty (60) out of eighty-seven (87)?
Was this not a significant change to the election process? How could a completely NEW device, hardware, firmware, and software be used without the a county commissioner vote? And then, how many municipalities (cities/towns/school-districts) not only decided to use the internet-connected KNOWiNK poll pads but also leased the equipment from the counties, also without a vote?
WHAT IF?... Any rollouts by force or fiat are ILLEGAL because they do not satisfy statutes on the books.
But pay close attention for retroactive [ex-post facto] statutes or omnibus bills (such as HF2117, 2025) which make such rollout legal, similar to how electronic tabulators became effectively mandated with language such as ~electronic tabulators required where previously used.
Influence on Elections from the 'Architect'
One guess is that the MN Secretary of State, Steve Simon, who somehow received more votes in the 2018 midterms than Donald Trump received in the 2016 presidential. Some refer to the current MNSOS as the Chief Architect of Minnesota Elections.
Beyond the recent evidence of his direct influence at the Anoka County level, here's the legislation he has directly or indirectly influenced currently allows (to name only a few)...
- no-excuse 46-day absentee
- a permanent absentee/mail-in list (ballots automatically mailed to a list of addresses which the public can scarcely scrutinize)
- delivery of absentee/mail-in until 8pm on election night
- same-day/election-day registration (usually about 7-10% of all voters)
- automatic voter registration for 16-17-year olds
- MANDATES for electronic tabulators (established through unconstitutional ex-post facto law)
- ballot images HIDDEN (these are receipts from mandated tabulators)
- modems (2-way cellular) ALLOWED in electronic tabulators
- wifi or cellular (2-way) ALLOWED in electronic poll pads, and
- election judges must sign summary tapes on election night without being allowed to hand count to check (~must immediately seal ballots)
Who Writes the Scripts?
If electronic tabulators are mandated, but counties only test a fraction of the machines, who checks the code to ensure it is properly programmed?
If electronic poll pads from KNOWiNK (a private 3rd-party vendor), the Trojan Horse, are used, who ensures that centralized data isn't misused on election day itself?
Why aren't log-files shown from the above devices (from ES&S, Dominion, KNOWiNK) available to the public?
Who is writing the rules of the game? (And constantly re-writing them?)
However, before one puts ALL woes on (or gives all credit) to the current Keeper of Records, Steve Simon, ask the next question:
Do we ever get to see beyond the actors? To learn who are the movie directors? To find out about the studio owners who write the scripts?
If someone is in the public eye, he is unlikely to be the director, the one writing the script.
Instead of speculate about that, maybe the reader wants to do something tangible. Therefore...
A few questions to ask counties and cities using electronic poll pads:
- Who carried out this likely ILLEGAL process in your county/city?
- Who suggested it be done?
- What were the conversations like that led to this decision?
- What arguments were given to ignore the simple Legal processes?
- Were any meetings/discussions/conversations documented in open meetings via video recording, through meeting minutes, or though emails which can be public records requested (FOIA)?
On November 4, 2020, Secretary Simon said:
I think we need to just remind ourselves what we just pulled off here
and went on to say:
everyone up and down the system performed nearly flawlessly
That was already more than four years ago.
Erik van Mechelen was a candidate for MNSOS in 2022 and a writer dedicated to detailing every critical corruption and subversion of Minnesota's election system, electronically, legally, and administratively.
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