Appendix (x) Isanti

Excerpt from: Simon’s Sensors: The Secret of the iPads, Chapter 6 - Isanti Township Officer Meeting

On the evening of April 24, 2025, at the Isanti County Government Center’s commissioner board room, after the Isanti County Auditor Angie Larson, with support from Chisago County Auditor Bridgitte Konrad, and staff, presented for about 30 minutes, one of the Isanti commissioners said he wanted to hear from the other people here, refering to myself, Derek, and Joe. Val, the chair of the Isanti Township Officer meeting looked to me and I stood, approaching the table where Angie’s computer was. She moved it out of the way even though I did not have a computer but instead glanced down at my notes I’d scribbled before the meeting with Derek and Joe, notes to which I’d added during Angie’s presentation making the page difficult to read. The good news was I knew, for the most part, what was important for the township officers to hear. (Angie’s full presentation audio can be found on https://projectminnesota.com/documents)

ERIK: Good evening, township officers. My name is Erik van Mechelen, and I’m here tonight with Derek and Joe right here, members of ACEIT, which is the Anoka County Election Integrity Team. So just south of you, and it’s great to have just probably only three minutes to share a few points here, because I think there’s been already some great questions about these, but [first] just a bit of my background. I ran for SOS in 2022, I worked in IT at Target Corporation, and I’ve written two short books on this topic, consolidating the research over the last three years that I’ve done.
So this group, the ACEIT team, came together about three years ago. They meet every Monday. They’re focused exclusively on election reform. So they’re a very knowledgeable group.
Why are we here? I think this, I mean, it was first on the points that Alan made for tonight of his Commissioner group. It’s also my number one issue that I think about and talk about. So I’m just going to make three points, because this group and the commissioner body, as well as the townships, has a really interesting and impactful choice they can make, where the legislature has taken away a lot of your choices. You still have this choice.
So the three points are around trust, cost, and then I’m going to really lay into that impact piece here. Here we are in 2025, we’ve been through a lot.
So with the trust. A few points under that. Historically, we’ve used paper. I hear the history of Cambridge, but historically we’ve used paper. It’s secure, it’s transparent, auditable, verifiable. It’s difficult to cheat with paper.
The audit logs in the current system are not shared with this system in our current process. They could be [but are] not currently shared. That would probably be a legislative change.
Once again, on the trust, these electronic systems can be hacked. But actually, it’s not a hypothetical. In 2016, the mayor of St. Bonifacius, His name is Rick Weible, 30 years computer expert, he said, Let me have a look at these. Within a few moments, he breached the iPad. Apple only fixed the way that he breached that iPad a few weeks ago. Think about that.
Hennepin County is currently trying to prevent me from getting the proof of that event. I may have to file [suit] to get that information, but Rick Weible has shown me email showing that Hennepin County was heavily suggesting that he reconsider his city council’s decision to decline the use of these e poll pads, in 2016 the only municipality in Hennepin County in 2016 in that rollout that declined them. He also didn’t like the contract.
Fourth point under trust.
Joe is right. These are the 10th generation. Actually, Angie is right too. They’re not Wi Fi connected. Okay, but how else can you connect to the internet? One way is through a cellular connection. That is how these particular devices are connected to the internet. And they’re always connected to the internet during the time that they’re turned on.
Another way to think about it, how would you get the voter file from the state, from the statewide voter registration system, into that iPad without the Internet? How would you do it?
The second point related to that during the day, there’s the capability through that internet connection to sync up and down data. So it’s not only the Bluetooth that’s printing out the little voter oath that you take over to get your ballot. There’s voter data being synced back and forth.
Fourth, I’m not sure, but I believe that even Angie, if she asked for that information, would have a hard time getting it from KNOWiNK, which is a third party provider based out of St Louis, which has a really interesting background. We don’t have enough time go into that. My three minutes are almost up.
So there is a small legislative point related to the architecture of these, relating to the internet. If you look up (Minnesota Statutes) § 201.225, Subdivision 2, Part 11 [“(11) be only networked within the polling location on election day, except for the purpose of updating absentee ballot records;”), I think, and many others do too, that these, because of that internet connection, put us in violation if we were to use them with that statute. That’s really troubling for me, that we have that conflict with the state statute.
Okay, so that’s trust. Internet connection is a big, big deal for me, but also just the hidden aspect of data, moving back and forth. When I worked at Target, that was what I worked on. We worked on, how do we move data through these different systems? It matters how you think about it and how you set it up. But as the public in elections, we don’t get to see that. KNOWiNK is not showing us that. And I could give you another description of how that’s being hidden from us as well another time.
So I said trust, cost, and impact.
Cost.
I think the questions took care of that. But in the back, I don’t remember your name, but the apples to apples comparison is what we’re looking for if we if we were just focused on cost: What’s the all in cost of current system versus a precinct using the [paper] poll pads? And of course, there’s the cross sharing or the cost sharing aspect. So I think it’s interesting that the state is subsidizing them.
Just that alone is interesting. But not only that, these systems as a product, they’re evolving. So you look at the history of KNOWiNK once again.
Right now, Hennepin County is trying to prevent me from having the details of a pilot, which I’m pretty sure they ran last year [edit: since confirmed], which allows these devices to be connected to a ballot printer. On-demand ballot printing in your precinct.
So think about it. You have data that’s flowing back and forth, and you have the ability to print ballots that is potentially coming down the line, I think, unless we put our foot down on this one from an impact standpoint.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, but it was mentioned before. These are basically disposable. They only last a few elections. You’ve got to replace them. There’s a cost. There’s concerns about that, especially in 2025.
So trust, cost, impact.
I think this choice is really impactful, because out of all the list of things that you could do locally where you have a voice and a say, whether it’s in the township or the city or at the county, this is definitely one you have a decision on I think that’s why there’s so much emphasis on it right now.
I wasn’t thinking about this in 2018 but many, many people are thinking, What can I do now? As they’ve started to question the overall electronic system, the legal aspect, there’s 500 pages of statutes. I’ve looked at those in quite detail, and then you have all the processes, kind of behind the scenes. So this is one aspect of that overall picture. But if you ask me, Would I rather have an electronic tabulator, the scanners, or a poll pad? I’d rather not have both, but I might actually choose the tabulator.
By the way, the legislature as of 2023 says you don’t have a choice if you used the tabulator before. Now you’re stuck with them, but you still have a choice with the electronic pull pad.
So I strongly prefer paper for the reasons I mentioned, no internet connection, more secure. You understand how to use it. If it’s a matter of training, you can increase the level of training and attention to detail to make sure everyone knows how to use it to reduce errors. And you kind of know what you’re getting. And I’m just really in favor of that. From that perspective. There’s a few other comments that I can make, but I think trust and cost are the two areas that I hear. And Derek has a comment.
DEREK: Yeah, my name is Derek Lind with ACEIT, we’ve been working on this for three years.
The politics is changing on the poll pads in Anoka County. In 2018 we put them in all 21 cities. The things got old. It was time to renew them. We just had that debate. They had the exact same presentation in Anoka County. That’s why we think it’s coming from a second source.
ANGIE: No, I just created this, like, a couple hours ago.
DEREK: Well, it was very, very similar. I mean, different dollar amounts. But no criticism, great presentation, but it was very similar, same talking points. What’s important here is this time around, it went from a seven-zero vote back in 2018, [this time] two commissioners voted against the poll pads. [Plus] one commissioner—there are seven commissioners there—one Commissioner skipped that vote, so we ended up losing. But you can see the ball shifting up there. Their phones got lit up. The people were telling them, don’t renew these poll pads. So I just wanted to add that. Thanks, Erik.
ERIK: Are there any brief questions? Otherwise, that’s about all I have.
TODD: No. I would just want to say is, if anybody wants any more information, are you guys available for anybody to reach out? Or is there a site to go to or anything?
DEREK: Yeah, we have website now (aceit.vote).
TODD: You do, okay?
ANGIE: Yeah, you can reach out to me too, if you like.
TODD: One for both sides.
ERIK: If you approach me afterwards, I’m happy to give anyone my contact information directly.
QUESTION: There must be some pretty sophisticated encryption, Bluetooth data, you talk about this floating around these devices. They’re encrypted, aren’t they, the data?
ERIK: So you talk about a Bluetooth. The Bluetooth allows this to print the receipt they take to the ballot judge. But then there’s also built into this model a cellular [connection].
INTERJECTION: He’s talking about the data itself, between the between iPad that we have two or three iPads in there.
QUESTION: There’s got to be some really sophisticated encryption going on so nobody can walk in with their own iPad and enter stuff data, right?
ERIK: Well, Joe, you want to comment on that? I have a couple of comments.
JOE: I’ll comment because I actually, for numerous years, I’ve been an election judge. I have used these because in my precinct where I work, that’s what they have.
The generation that they’re buying, Anoka County has the same problem, their’s are 2018, they’re buying new ones.
These are actually slightly different than the ones we’ve all used, because previous ones all had to connect to a hot spot and then cellular out. But that’s also how they connect within the precinct. So this Bluetooth connection between the iPads, this will be the first time that they’ve been used in Anoka. Sounds like it will be your guys’ first time. So we don’t know about—we’ll have to learn about it in our next judge training and everything—but this will be the first time they’re being rolled out in regards to that.
And I want to the question in the back here, and I know we’re having a lot of arguments with the state here, You do have a right to say No.
County Commissioners could buy these. The auditor could say, We are going to use them. But under Minnesota statutes, they have to enter into an agreement with you. You have the right to say No.
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I don’t know what will happen in Isanti County, but I had a good feeling leaving the meeting that many in the room, apart from the staff, were on our side. If it came to a commissioner vote in Isant in the coming weeks, we thought, in talking with Derek, we might have the first instance of a commissioner group voting not to accept the iPads from KNOWiNK, and stay with paper. [The commissioners did vote not to purchase them, 4-0 with one abstention.]