In a rare move in the fight for election integrity, one Minnesota county has recently rejected using electronic poll books altogether.
The chair of the Isanti County Board of Commissioners, Alan Duff, joined Liz Collin on her podcast to explain electronic poll books, or e-poll books, and why they matter for election integrity.
Duff explained that “e-poll rosters are basically a registration system. When you go to vote, you register your name. A lot of people are familiar with the paper rosters, which is what we have been using and a lot of counties have used in the past. We just like the simplicity of the paper ballots. Another thing is that our poll workers are, a lot of them are retired and they were kind of fearful of technology being placed into their hands.”
“We just saw too many concerns, whether it was cost, trust from the public, the implementation of it, and … we would lose some of the ability to manage things as it would be in the hands of a vendor outside of our state,” Duff said.
In weighing the pros and cons, Duff said that “for a lot of reasons, it was a pretty easy decision to stay with our paper rosters.”
Duff explained that 63 of Minnesota’s 87 counties use e-poll book technology.
Listening to people when it comes to accountability and voting integrity
However, it’s important to listen to what people want, Duff explained.
“A lot of the people that we’ve spoken to do not trust the election process primarily for reasons at the federal and the state level. They like the process at a local level where they can see the people they’re working with and see the accountability in terms of how they’re recording that they’re there to vote and there’s just a lot more trust in the system,” Duff said.
Last fall, the town of Oak Grove in Anoka County voted to go to paper poll pads and was threatened with “legal trouble” in a memo.
“ACE-IT was a very helpful partner in looking at this. They gave us a lot of good perspectives. From my perspective, I did talk with people that were pro and con for both sides, because I wanted to be as best informed on this issue as I could be. If you look back at our discussion on this important issue, I got the sense all five of us commissioners, the other four, did a phenomenal job in doing a lot of research,” Duff said.
Critics argue that the poll books present security vulnerabilities and make it easier for people to cheat.
Response from Secretary of State’s Office
Alpha News reached out to Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon’s office to ask why they support the e-poll books.
Communications director Peter Bartz-Gallagher said, “Our office doesn’t advocate one way or another on the adoption of electronic rosters, and will always respect the authority of any county to choose what is right for their residents, as permitted by state law.”
Bartz-Gallagher explained that choosing to use e-poll book technology or not “is a county decision” and pointed out that “over 70% of Minnesota counties now use this technology” and do so for “efficiency and accuracy in the polling place.”
Bartz-Gallagher also stated that “electronic rosters are in no way connected to the electronic voting equipment that counts ballots, and no election results are available (including to the Office of Secretary of State) before the closing of the polls on Election Day.”
