Actual Attendee Numbers vs. Reported Straw Poll Votes Reveals Major Gap in MN GOP Process
While in the coming days a discrepancy of more than 17,000 may be described as a data entry error, Minnesotans across the state today were puzzled to learn that the Minnesota GOP reported to the campaigns that there were 35,196 attendees in the recent precinct caucuses after previously reporting that only 17,801 votes were cast in the gubernatorial straw poll.
This new data presents issues that can only be resolved by checking the actual data. For example, it is possible that the attendees and straw poll votes are both accurate, meaning that more than 49 percent of attendees decided not to participate in the gubernatorial straw poll. However, that result would be an anomaly from my perspective as 100 percent of attendees in my sub-section of my precinct voted. It also noteworthy that according to candidate Dr. Neil Shah that Morrison County Republican Party Chair admitted to both omitting names from the delegate list sent to the state party and also adding names to the delegate list of people who were not in attendance. Dr. Neil Shah’s demand for a full forensic audit of the GOP caucus data would be one avenue to resolving the large scale data discrepancy and seems likely to raise further questions in the process of digging.
Shortly after caucus, it was announced that candidate Dr. Scott Jensen won the straw poll at the state level (and this news was then amplified by numerous media outlets), but how do we know he actually did win when there was a gap of 17,395 between attendees and straw poll votes?
If this was a mistake, how was such a large mistake made? Who is responsible for clarifying what happened?
For what is largely marketed as an us vs. them issue, today’s development begs questions from the MN GOP directly.
Even before the November 3rd, 2020 election there was increased attention on the election process, from the vantage of statutes, process, and voting hardware and software. Since late 2020, much blame has been cast on the Democrat machine for ballot harvesting and changes to Minnesota election law through consent decrees. And in January 2021, even the Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon admitted there is fraud in every election.
During a contentious hearing on a voter ID bill today, Secretary of State Steve Simon called Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer a "question cop" when she pressed him to answer a question on election fraud.
— Alpha News (@AlphaNewsMN) 6:24 PM ∙ Jan 27, 2021
In recent months, however, as clearer and clearer indications of cheating, tampering, and outright fraud emerge nationally, the people are noticing that elected officials within the Republican party that they thought might come to their aid have been strangely quiet.
For example, very few elected officials supported the people of Crow Wing County’s request for a forensic audit in their county. And yet the people there encouraged their county commissioners to do something, prompting them to first pass a motion to bring a resolution, and then to pass that resolution, which asked the Secretary of State to assist them with a proper audit.
Predictably, Secretary of State Steve Simon declined to be helpful. Instead his letter states, “There is no legitimate reason to second-guess the integrity of the 2020 election in Crow Wing County. The county has already done its duty with great skill, and the system worked as it was designed - and as the public has every right to expect.”
Just as the coronavirus rollout seems to have worked as designed, I do not believe Steve Simon is lying regarding the election system working as it was designed.
Oss Response To Crow Wing County Resolution97.5KB ∙ PDF fileDownloadDownload
Steve Simon can say that Minnesota has “consistent election integrity” but if no one asks him precisely what he means by this, then it may be difficult for the public to get clarity on election related issues.
Steve Simon’s letter goes on to describe how local administrators do hard work to run an election, “they purchase and test election equipment, they order ballots, they hire and train elections judges, they run the absentee balloting process, they handle ballot security, and they count the votes.” One of my own relatives who has worked in the elections process cannot fathom how there could be cheating because she and those she worked with followed the process flawlessly.
The problem is not so much in the majority of people participating in election management and processes, but rather in the administrative loopholes, process weaknesses (see chain of custody on absentee ballots), and software vulnerabilities inherent in the system. There are numerous ways to cheat even if every election official does everything by the book. For a flood of these concerns, this recent presentation from Rick Weible and Susan Shogren Smith in Dakota County is clarifying. Upcoming events and a summary are available on Rick’s website: midwestswampwatch.com. Having sat the presentation in person three times, I consider it required viewing for every Minnesotan who cares about their vote counting in any election. (An update is coming soon with closeups of the slides.)
To repeat, the issues with our election system and process should not be characterized as simply Democrat or Republican problems. It is not the case that Democrats don’t care about election integrity and Republicans do. Eventually, within the next few months, everyone will have a working understanding of exactly how are election systems work. Then the people will have to decide what to do with that information.
Unfortunately, so far, with few marked exceptions, elected officials from both parties have largely failed to make any noise whatsoever on an issue most people are getting wise to. It’s only natural for the people to ask what their elected officials are doing to support an investigation of the November 3rd, 2020 election and elections held since.
Bear in mind that the flaws in our system could be seen as features of the system, depending on one’s point of view. If Steve Simon can say that “the system worked as it was designed”, then the people can ask him to explain exactly how it was designed and to exercise transparency where so far it has been lacking.
Meanwhile, I am thankful for the apparent MN GOP data fumble at the precinct caucuses—for an election held with only pen and paper—because it helps to showcase the depth of the puzzle we collectively face but can with greater awareness finally overcome.
For more on this developing story, please type a good email to reach you.
If you are an election whistleblower, please contact theloneraccoon@protonmail.com - that is the email for Jeffrey O’Donnell (link to Telegram) who alongside Draza Smith (link to Telegram) and others has done some of the best work to understand how the Dominion, ES&S, and other voting systems are used to manipulate our votes.
Should you find it within you to help gather Cast Vote Record (CVR) reports from counties, reply to this email or send a note to erikvanmechelen@protonmail.com and I will share a simple process to perform a public data request based on instructions from Jeffrey O’Donnell.
