Reinert For City Autonomy, Counters System Narrative

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In a significant volley countering the prevailing system narrative, which is that a County gets to decide whether cities use a certain type of voter check-in roster and registration process (which over-rules a city's choice), on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, Commissioner Jeff Reinert commented on the offered resolution #2025-G08 before the Anoka County Board prior to voting No, along with Commissioner John Heinrich, a vote which went 5-2 in favor of reaffirming the Chief Officer of the Property Records and Taxation division, Pam LeBlanc, as Anoka's Head Election Official and supporting (mandating) the use of electronic rosters in Anoka County elections, effectively by county fiat.

Commissioner Reinert began by covering his position on roster type (he neither favors paper nor electronic), then noted that there is no state mandate on electronic use; however, by contrast, in 2023 the legislature mandated electronic tabulators for precincts that used them previously.

He then summarized the position of the county's election officials and county attorney:

“Today, our election officials and county attorney hold the position that our county election officials have now and always had full authority over the choice to impose use of poll pads or paper rosters. Then why the vote today? Why did we need to affirm anything if that is true?”

He proceeded to shine light on the now 18-month procedural and political intrigue within Anoka County but that extends also to the Minnesota Office of the Secretary of State, and possibly beyond.

Why does this all matter to Minnesota voters? Because the commissioner's comments focus on who has the authority to determine what kind of check-in and same-day registration process is used by municipalities. Can a staff member of the county dictate use without getting agreement first from cities?

The resolution's reaffirmation frames the poll pad decision under the Head Election Official argument—look here, not there—which then draws attention away from the clear plain language in statutes showing how municipalities have autonomy on matters such as this, as was highlighted by a 1987 amendment to current state statutes when counties were trying to usurp power from local government bodies.

Commissioner Reinert noted that as of 18 months ago, the County Attorney's position was that the County Board has all the authority to decide because they had voted in 2018 to purchase the poll pads, an erroneous position that has since shifted, as evidenced by the County Attorney's participation in preparing the proposed resolution, revealed in the July 8 Government Operations meeting. Reinert added that the County Attorney has previously stated that he, Brad Johnson, the County Attorney, does not represent the County Board, but instead the Staff.

Emphasized also in Commissioner Reinert's July 22 speaking points was the fact that an unsigned letter sent by Elections Manager Tom Hunt in late October 2024, with apparent input from the Anoka County Attorney Brad Johnson and the Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, actually indicated that felonies could be given to election judges opting to use paper rosters in the 2024 general election, a letter arriving days before the November Election Day, but already weeks after Oak Grove led by Mayor Weston Rolf passed a resolution declaring their preference for paper pollbooks through a cancellation of their Poll Pad Agreement with Anoka County. In this same agreement, the words “delegates” and “shall be responsible for” are used, which undercuts the County Attorney and County Election Manager who have argued that municipal approval isn't needed because there is no delegation occurring.

Despite the Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon being quoted in the unsigned letter from the Anoka County Elections division, perhaps for optics the Office of the Secretary of State has since suggested it has no preference on whether paper or electronics are used, according to a Liz Collin report with Isanti Commissioner Alan Duff.

Backed up by Commissioner John Heinrich's support that the County help cities find a roadmap to using paper pollbooks if they so desire, Commissioner Reinert's storytelling and position represent a thorough understanding of the legal implications of yesterday's resolution, a clear message that he represents the people of his district, and possibly more—while many politicians have said much but done nothing to counter the system's narrative warfare, an elected official in Minnesota's 4^th largest county by population, that geographically wedges itself from the north into the space between Hennepin County and Ramsey County, the heart of the system's Minnesota-based control structure, has spoken firmly about every municipality's choice—a choice by the city councils in 850 cities and town boards in 1,800 townships spread across 87 counties—to decide what kind of roster type they use.

Of note, Isanti County (to Anoka's north) recently decided not to purchase KNOWiNK poll pads after speaking with representatives from all of the municipalities in their county, including with Cambridge, the city that was previously using the electronic system, which has so far decided not to continue using them.

Meanwhile, Anoka County chose to repurchase on February 25, 2025, which Commissioner Reinert and Commissioner Heinrich opposed, a 4-2 vote (in favor) with one absence. Commissioner Heinrich noted the potential for scalable fraud (if fraud were to occur), while Commissioner Reinert focused on procedure and city autonomy, themes which have borne fruit as already described above.

Commissioner Reinert concluded his initial remarks in the July 22, 2025 meeting by saying:

"I cannot support this misleading and possibly illegal resolution."

Is the Anoka County Board's resolution, which attempts to mandate electronic poll pad usage without city approval, actually against state law and threatening the rights of citizens? What else outside of their authority will they mandate upon the cities?

Should the county be taking power from the cities? Can they? The answer to both is no, and yet they are trying anyway.

Read this article on the web here.
Videos from ACEIT here.
Reports from Liz Collin on ACEIT here, here, and here.
Books from Project Minnesota here.
Ideas to take action now.

Learn more about City Autonomy by downloading these documents: