Where to speak about restoring trust
County commissioner, city council member, and township supervisor meetings
Since speaking at my first county commissioner meeting in Sherburne County, MN in April of 2022, just over a year ago, I’ve spoken at, participated in, or supported election integrity discussions, meetings or events in about a dozen counties, including Crow Wing, Morrison, Stearns, Hennepin, Dakota, Faribault, Olmsted, Otter Tail, Carver, Lake, and Anoka. I’ve interacted with residents of perhaps a dozen more.
One of the most common questions from advocates and activists is, What should we do to truly have an impact?
For me, it’s hard to imagine a verifiably accurate election unless mail-in voting is done away with, registrations are started from scratch, and elections happen on one day and are counted that same night by hand with livestreamed video surveillance.
But there are things the legislature controls, and things more local government controls.
Mail-in is up to the legislature.
Time, place, and manner (currently 46 days for absentee/mail-in) is up to the legislature.
Voter/photo ID is up to the legislature.
But… 1) voter registration, 2) voter validation, and 3) tabulation and 4) reporting is up to the counties, cities, and townships.
Therefore:
Try to set up an agenda item, special meeting, or workshop. Short of that, go to the open forum/public comment segment of your next county commissioner meeting, city council meeting, or township supervisor meeting and inform the board about its options regarding starting rolls over from scratch and running tabulation by hand. Both will take a bit of time to prepare for, so they better get started!
This is about public trust, which has been breached many times over. Just listen to this presentation from this past Sunday. Trust can’t be restored using the same process that created the distrust.
Don’t have anyone to go with? Invite a friend and attend the meeting. Maybe you will meet someone else there and then you will double your numbers by the next meeting. (It’s actually the best place to find dedicated election integrity advocates.)
Do this every two weeks or whenever your county commissioners, city council, or township supervisors meet. Get to know them and make them aware of your presence.
Accountability
I’ve created a Minnesota Magistrates weekly posting on https://projectminnesota.com which shows whether I’m aware of activity in your area relating to commissioner meetings and CVRs.
You can update me or send any questions to erikvanmechelen@protonmail.com
Commissioner engagement
Use public comment or open forum during commissioner meetings (usually on Mondays or Tuesdays twice monthly) to:
share updates with commissioners
ask why voter registration is still controlled by the state and corporations, and
ask why the county is still using electronic voting equipment proven to be highly vulnerable to election-changing manipulation and covert subversion
For examples of this, see Anoka's recent county commissioner video recordings.
Cast vote records (CVR)
Cast vote records are a critical independent audit of the electronic tabulators performed by the tabulator itself and automatically stored on the tabulator as well as encrypted on removable media (like a thumb drive).
Request these from the County Administrator or whomever is the responsible authority. (Note that in Fillmore the Auditor was able to provide the cast vote records, and therefore any auditor or administrator should be able to provide these.) See https://midwestswampwatch.com/tools-you-can-use/ for details.
Ask for CVRs from 2020 general election and 2022 midterm election. (You can also ask for these from any local election where votes were run through tabulators... which is every election.)
View the Fillmore Cast Vote Record on VoteDatabase.com