Sample Ballots in Minnesota Erroneously Contain Official Ballot Markings

Voting fraudsters are now a simple click, download and print away from creating their own customized official ballot supply in some Minnesota Counties - the proper authorities have been notified!

What I thought was going to be a quiet catch-up week became much busier following a flood of reports that some of the sample ballots posted on the website of the Minnesota Secretary of State did not contain the familiar “Sample” watermark. As a lawyer who is willing to listen to, and act upon, reports of voter official activism and voter integrity concerns, I get a lot of noise in my professional feed.

This one, however, caught my attention. Why would some counties in Minnesota post a “sample” ballot that did not contain any notation or reference that it is not the official ballot? When questioned as to why the “actual ballot” was posted, one county official responded, “Although there is no uniformity among all Mn Counties, multiple counties have adopted the same practice as [xxxxx] County.” I had to read that email multiple times . . . this official admits that there are election administrators in multiple counties that collaborated to adopt a practice to post what appears to be their official ballot on the website of the Minnesota Secretary of State.

I had to dig deeper. As my readers know, I continue to pursue a lawsuit questioning the use of modems in our election equipment. This journey quickly taught me that the complex technology inside these black boxes is extremely difficult to decipher and is often shrouded with secrecy, and claims of proprietary protection. I have tried to track articles and technology specific reading materials as best as I can. Yet, nothing replaces the old adage that you should surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. As such, I engaged my network to help decipher this draft v. official ballot question, and found out the rest of the story.

Official ballots contain markings on the edges that tell the black box/tabulator that a ballot has been accepted for a specific race and then to count the votes. As my colleagues know, when I request a research project, I want the answer to be readable on a single screen of my i-phone. The i-phone screen explanation I received is here:

“those [marks] tell the machine how to read the ovals on the ballots and what database bucket to put the results into the tabulator for results.”

Without those marks, a sample ballot would simply be just an unusable ballot. To my astonishment, the same Counties that did not include the “sample ballot” designation, actually included official ballot customized marks (timing marks) on the ballots posted on the Secretary of State’s website. Click on the document below to see the unique ballot markings that were on the ballot created and approved by Olmsted County, and published by the Secretary of State on his website:

Olmsted Sample Ballot With Timing Marks

93KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

A snapshot of the manufacturers’ election manual provides an explantion of “timing marks” and a “code channel.”

As is public knowledge, ballot stock paper can be purchased in bulk by any member of the public. Do you need an envelope to put it in - click and edit here. It appears that certain county election officials have gone out of their way to provide a mechanism for bad actors to swap ballots during mailing or transportation, or ballot board processing where partisan oversight is absent. What about the ability to stuff ballots into drop boxes with forged absentee envelopes and applications?

The saying, “Make it Easy to Vote and Hard to Cheat” seems to have been replaced by, “Make it Easy to Vote, even when you want to Cheat.” After all, we don’t want to disenfanchise the cheaters.

Fortunately, there are concerned citizens who are willing to stand-up and report these irregularities. There is a process to report suspected voting violations to the County Attorney where the incident occurred. Complaints have now been submitted in Olmsted County, with others under review.

The content of the complaint is as follows:

VIOLATION:

Minn. Stat. §204B.43 which makes it unlawful for an election official to knowingly give, or permit a ballot to be printed, in a form other than that prescribed by law;

Minn. R. 8250.1810, Subp. 18, which mandates the format for Example Ballots the election official is required to follow for the 2024 general election.

The format of the 2024 General Election Example Ballot can be found here: https://www.sos.state.mn.us/election-administration-campaigns/election-administration/example-ballots/

A copy of the required Example Ballot required by the Secretary of State is attached hereto as Exhibit A.

STATEMENT OF FACTS:

I visited the Minnesota Secretary of State Election & Voting website and followed the instructions for viewing my sample ballot for my home address as listed above. 

Attached as Exhibit B is a copy of the ballot that I viewed and downloaded from this website.  This “sample ballot” was created by xxxx County Elections and published by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office on their website.

This ballot is not a proper sample ballot in that it does not comply with the requirements set forth in Minn. R. 8250.1810, Subp. 18 as follows:

• The ballot does not contain the required reference “Example” “Example Ballot” or “Sample.”

• The ballot contains ballot identification markings referred to as “Timing Marks” and “Code Channel.”  

• It is my understanding that these ballot identification markings allow an election tabulator to scan a ballot, read the ovals/votes and tabulate the final votes. 

• It is further my understanding that the Attached Exhibit B could be treated as an official ballot.

• An explanation of these ballot identification markings is attached hereto as Exhibit C.

The publication and distribution of improper Example Ballots such as the attached Exhibit B, by xxxxx County and the Minnesota Secretary of State violates Minn. Stat. §204B.43 as follows:

• They are knowingly giving official ballots to unauthorized individuals;

• They are permitting unauthorized individuals to download, print and distribute an official ballot. 

• It is public knowledge that blank ballots can be purchased by any member of the public, allowing them easy access to print official ballots for improper use in the general election.