Brenda Baldwin addresses the Faribault County Board about concerns over voting machines being hacked.

Concern over the security of elections due to the possibility of hacking, unauthorized programming within the voting/tabulation machines, mail in ballots, potential drop boxes, and a lack of voter identification, were reasons a group of Faribault County citizens gave for speaking up at the Faribault County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 4, during the public comment portion of the meeting. With those considerations in mind, the group presented a resolution calling for the hand counting of ballots and in person voting in Faribault County.

“We are here to present a resolution to address our voting practices in Faribault County,” Brenda Baldwin, spokesperson for the group, explained. “We are trying to be pro-active in stopping voter fraud in Faribault County before it happens.”

Baldwin assured those in attendance the group was in no way accusing the county auditor or any of the county’s election officials of voter fraud.

Baldwin went on to share some issues in the county the group found unsettling.

“One post office expressed that every election cycle they receive 10-15 mail-in ballots/voter registrations at the post office,” Baldwin said. “While they recognize the address as a local address, the names on the items are not recognized names of people who live at the addresses. In another instance, an elderly person received a voter registration in the mail that they did not request.”

Commissioner Tom Loveall voiced his own concerns.

“I am getting more and more skeptical about machines,” Loveall stated. “My concern is that voters have trust in their voting system.”

Baldwin also introduced Erik van Mechelen to the group. Van Mechelen ran for election for Minnesota Secretary of State. He was defeated in the Republican primary on Aug. 9 of this year. He is also author of the book, “(S)elections in Minnesota: An Introduction to How Machines Controlled 2020 And Why We Must Return to Hand Counting Paper Ballots” .

While voicing his concerns over the security of voting machines, van Mechelen offered, “I don’t know why we wouldn’t hand tally and eliminate all concerns.”

“Let’s put the issue to rest,” Baldwin added. “If the hand count matches the machine count maybe we can begin to trust the machines.”

County auditor/treasurer/coordinator Darren Esser told the group he is bound by state and federal law in how the elections are to be conducted.

However, in order to address voting security issues, Esser brought forth a resolution which stated if valid proof, as determined by the County Board of Commissioners, exists of unauthorized access to Faribault County voting machine data, to the extent allowed by law, then Faribault County would immediately discontinue the use of voting machines in Faribault County for county, state and federal elections until such time the Faribault County Board of Commissioners is confident that any possible machine manipulation has been resolved.

The commissioners took no action on either resolution and thanked the group for sharing their thoughts and concerns. The commissioners said their next meeting will include the election topic as an agenda item.

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