1 min read

What's the best available local action for city councils?

What should be done now?
What's the best available local action for city councils?
Derek Lind (ACEIT) speaks in August 18, 2025 Spring Lake Park City Council meeting

I still think best local action for cities councils and town boards is to...

  1. Cancel electronic poll pad hardware/software –> just use paper [election day]
  2. Process own absentee -> don't outsource to county [46 days prior to election day]
  3. Return to in-person voting option for mail ballot-only precincts [election day]
  4. Expand post-election handcount reviews to include down ballot (and additional precincts) [10-14 days after election day] p.s. Why not also do this for primary elections?
  5. Publish a document certifying their office (clerk or election manager) has reviewed ballot images, to ensure the tabulators actually generated ballot images/cast-vote-record at all (I realize ballot images have been made classified data, but the administrators can still look at them) [2-5 days after election day]

Please note: VOTER ACCOUNT funds can be used by municipalities and counties for ANY election-related or administrative tasks, therefore "we don't have budget" is not a good answer, and is a substitute for "we are not prioritizing" ... #1-3 above are fully in control of the municipality while #4 relies on the county canvassing board to accept the request of the cities (which is a lame rule, as many are), #5 is the least any real auditor would do, to verify the thing actually does what it is advertised to do

Also, "Best available" is used in the title of this post because certain legislative actions in the past four years have removed choices from local city councils and town boards, in my opinion to the detriment of the process.


Learn more about these options at https://projectminnesota.com/local

If you're an advocate, check out this election reform training plan so that you can actually achieve goals you and others have in your city or town.