ELECTION 2020

Why does Minnesota lead the country in voter turnout — and which areas lead Minnesota?

Mary Murphy — Sat, 26 Oct 2024 12:24:00 GMT

ST.PAUL — Minnesota has ranked No. 1 for general election voter turnout across the country since 2008, according to data from the Minnesota Secretary of State. How did Minnesota get to the top?

One expert says it may be tied to laws in the state and even the ancestry of its residents.

Roots in Europe may be partially responsible for Minnesota's high turnout rates, said Tim Lindberg, associate professor of political science at the University of Minnesota Morris.

“Northern European nations, and especially Scandinavian ones, have strong cultures of civic engagement in the community,” said Tim Lindberg, associate professor of political science at the University of Minnesota, Morris. “So settlers to Minnesota largely brought that ethos with them, and it continues to matter today.”

Lindberg said civic engagement — for example, Minnesota’s high rates of volunteering — translates directly to voting. He also cited voting laws in Minnesota, such as same-day registration or absentee voting, that make it easy for people to vote.

In the most recent presidential election, Minnesota’s average voter turnout was 81.56%, compared to the country’s average of 66%.

How did Minnesota’s voter turnout vary internally in 2020?

In each county, the Secretary of State’s Office measured the percentage of total eligible voters who cast ballots in 2020. Minnesota mostly fell in line with typical voter turnout trends, such as the correlation between socioeconomic status and turnout rates, according to the United States Census Bureau.

Suburbs just outside of the Twin Cities like Carver, Washington and Scott counties— with, respectively, 93%, 91% and 90% turnout — all came in almost a full 15% above the country’s average.

These higher-turnout counties closer to the metro also have high socioeconomic status, according to the Minnesota Department of Health’s most recent data, making them consistent with typical voter trends. But Cook, with 89%, appeared as an outlier.

Cook, Otter Tail, Douglas and Pope counties stuck out as rural counties that showed up in force in 2020, Ramsey appeared as a sore spot in the Twin Cities, and some of Minnesota’s lower-income counties came in with the lowest turnout.

Counties with the highest voter turnout in 2020

1. Carver, 93.8%

2. Washington, 90.8%

3. Scott, 89.7%

4. Cook, 89.1%

5. Wright, 88.4%

6. Dakota, 88%

7. Hennepin, 86%

8. Olmsted, 84.9%

9. Anoka, 83.7%

10. Lake, 83.5%

Rural counties that showed up to the polls

Cook County, all the way up on the northeast borders of Minnesota, had the fourth-highest turnout in the state.

“In Cook County, there are quite a few people who either lived in the Twin Cities and they moved there, or they're (in Cook County) because there's artists communities,” Lindberg said. “There are some enclaves of higher, more highly educated people who tend to vote at higher rates.”

Otter Tail, Douglas and Pope counties — with, respectively, 82%, 83% and 81.8% turnout — are all rural areas that had surprisingly higher turnout rates in 2020. While these counties have a few larger cities with populations above 10,000 — Fergus Falls and Alexandria, for example — Lindberg said the numbers are impressive.

“In and of itself, for a rural county to have a voting rate in an election like that well above 60%, in most cases, is really impressive,” he said.

What’s going on in the Twin Cities?

Why was Ramsey County, which had a turnout of 77.9% in 2020, almost a full 10% lower than Hennepin at 86%? Lindberg pointed to Ramsey County’s lack of wealthier suburbs that are found in other metropolitan counties.

“(In) Hennepin County, which obviously has Minneapolis in it, the lower voting rates that you would expect in a huge urban area with lots of people of color who tend to have lower voting rates is offset by the fact that you also have very wealthy suburbs with highly educated folks among the highest voting populations,” Lindberg said.

He added that institutions such as colleges, mental hospitals or prisons can push these numbers down as well.

Counties with the lowest voter turnout in 2020

1. Wilkin, 69.8%

2. Koochiching, 69.7%

3. Norman, 69.6%

4. Pine, 69.6%

5. Stevens, 69.1%

6. Pennington, 68%

7. Winona, 67.3%

8. Polk, 66.5%

9. Nobles, 66.5%

10. Mahnomen, 61.7%

The counties with the lowest turnout rates — Mahnomen with 61%, Nobles with 66% and Polk with 66.5% — all match the trend of rural areas with lower rates, but Lindberg said there could be other factors at play, like socioeconomic status.

While not true for all of the lowest-turnout counties, some have higher poverty rates, according to the Minnesota Department of Health’s most recent data. For example, roughly 23% of Mahnomen County’s population is in poverty, and Nobles and Koochiching counties have a 14% poverty rate.

“The rural counties that don't have that [high of turnout] tend to be the ones that are the poorest in the state because lower economic status is associated with lower voting rates,” Lindberg said, explaining this is most often because of access to education.

Winona County, at 67% turnout in 2020, is another example of a county that could be skewed by having a college campus — Winona State University.

What could drive Minnesota’s voter turnout in 2024?

Looking specifically at rural and red communities, the “DFL trifecta” — a Democratic Minnesota governor, House and Senate — from the past two years could bring people to the polls.

“It was, regardless of whether you're for it or against it, it was a lot of change and a lot of easy targets for the opposing party to say, ‘Wow, they went really far in one, one particular small, you know, legislative session,’ ” Lindberg said. “Republicans might come out, particularly in Minnesota, as a response to what happened in the legislative session.”

As for Democrats, Lindberg pointed to more national trends in politics rather than local ones.

“Even though in Minnesota, we've passed laws to protect it further, turnout could be driven by continuing concerns about abortion access in the United States, and continuing concerns about democracy and what a Trump presidency might mean in that regard,” he said.

The full overview of Minnesota’s voter turnout in the 2020 election can be viewed here.

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Minnesota Rep. Hudson denies support for government overthrow after viral speech sparks criticism

Mary Murphy — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 22:56:12 GMT

ST. PAUL — Minnesota Rep. Walter Hudson, R-Albertville, said this week that he does not support government overthrow after a clip of him speaking about tyranny at an event last week went viral.

In a video that has been shared widely on X, formerly Twitter, Hudson discusses the Declaration of Independence and its references to a tyrannical government.

“One of the things you’ll likely hear in November is reference to the Declaration of Independence,” Hudson said to activists in the audience. “It says that when a system of government becomes tyrannical, the people have not just the right, but the duty to change their form of government. Doesn’t say anything about waiting for two years for the next election. It doesn’t say anything about waiting until the next Supreme Court justice retires or passes away. Whenever we have the right and the duty to change it. So that’s, I’m glad you guys are going to be looking into that.”

Hudson was speaking at a Faith & Freedom event on Friday, Oct. 18, in Princeton. Faith & Freedom is a national conservative advocacy group; the event in Princeton was one of the local activists’ monthly meetings.

In response to the clip, the Minnesota DFL called on the Minnesota GOP in a press release to disavow the remarks from Rep. Hudson, saying he was expressing support to overthrow the government.

“The Minnesota Republican Party has embraced increasingly extreme rhetoric and lies about our elections for the sake of Donald Trump,” DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin said in the release. “I’m calling on Minnesota GOP Chair David Hann to disavow these remarks and to make it clear that he rejects the lies that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump in Minnesota. Defending the integrity of our democracy was a bipartisan issue before 2020, and it’s time we made it one again.”

Hudson told Forum News Service on Thursday that he believes his words were taken out of context. He said he was discussing plans for Faith & Freedom’s next meeting in November and that, at no point, did he discuss the events of Jan. 6, 2021.

“The event began with a preview of their next meeting, which takes place in November, where they’re going to have somebody coming to instruct them on a process for utilizing the common law to petition for redress of grievance, utilizing an obscure process involving legal notices and affidavits,” he said.

Hudson said on Thursday that he does not support what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol.

“The law was broken, and the people who broke the law should be prosecuted,” Hudson said. “I think that the concern over Jan. 6 is a legitimate concern, and the concern over so-called election denial and the behavior that it can motivate is a legitimate concern.”

Hudson posted from his official X account at least twice on Jan. 6, 2021, saying “We all know this is cheating,” and mentioning “systematic election fraud.”

When asked about the tweets, Hudson told Forum News Service on Friday that, "Biden won. But reducing it to the question of who won sidesteps the concerns about how."

Mixed reactions

While Hudson denies expressing support for overthrowing the government, other Minnesota Republicans have shown mixed reactions to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

In January of 2021, the Minnesota Legislature voted on a resolution condemning the Jan. 6 insurrection. Hudson voted in support, but eight Republican representatives voted in opposition, and Republican senators stalled the resolution from passing.

Other Minnesota lawmakers have denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election results. In Congress, Republican Reps. Michelle Fischbach and the late Jim Hagedorn voted against certifying election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Minnesota state Rep. Jeff Doseth, running as a Republican for House seat 11A, has openly supported the “Stop the Steal” movement.

Hudson said he feels Democrats are using Jan. 6 to deflect concerns from Republicans around election security, referencing the ballots left unattended in a car outside Edina City Hall recently.

“There are no complaints that anyone is making about the administration of elections that justify breaking a law or justify what happened on Jan. 6,” Hudson said. “However, to continually deflect to that day as an excuse for addressing people’s legitimate election administration concerns … I think is a disservice.”

DFL Party Chair Martin responded, saying he feels Republicans are not just waging complaints regarding election administration but “lies” that Minnesota’s elections aren’t secure and that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.

“Minnesota has the best-run elections in the entire country, and judges appointed by presidents from both parties — including Donald Trump — have unanimously ruled that there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud happening in this country,” Martin said. “It's unfortunate that these types of conspiracy theories have now been mainstreamed by Minnesota GOP leaders like Walter Hudson — they are doing a disservice to our democracy and to their own supporters.”

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Trump falsely claims he won Minnesota in 2020, then contradicts himself

Briana Bierschbach / Star Tribune — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 15:51:01 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS — Former President Donald Trump appeared on a Minnesota conservative talk radio station on Monday, March 4, and suggested he won the state four years ago, before moments later seeming to acknowledge he lost in 2020.

"I thought we won it last time, I'll be honest, and I think we did win it. It's very interesting, bad things happened with Minnesota," Trump said on St. Cloud station KNSI's "Hot Talk with the Ox" program Monday, on the eve of Minnesota's presidential primary election.

Trump came within 1.5 percentage points of winning Minnesota in 2016 and made multiple trips to the state in 2020 to try to turn it red, but he lost the race to President Joe Biden by more than 7 percentage points. The former president has falsely claimed there was widespread fraud in the last presidential election, but he hadn't commented specifically on Minnesota's results until Monday.

"Donald Trump's lies about losing Minnesota underscore the unprecedented threat that he poses to our democracy," DFL Party Chair Ken Martin said of Trump's comments. "These are the same lies that he pushed when he sent his supporters to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, and they are just as dangerous today."

But Trump went on to say that "we didn't quite make it" in Minnesota, noting that he's working with House Majority Whip and Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer to put together a plan to flip Minnesota this fall. No Republican presidential candidate has won the state since 1972.

"I thought we had it. I did so much for the state, especially up north, what we did, the level of love was so incredible," Trump said. "We didn't quite make it, and I think there's a lot of things that we have to look at."

Emmer, who was briefly a candidate to be House Speaker this fall, saw his bid dashed after Trump called him a "globalist RINO," for "Republican in name only."

"Tom Emmer I believe is a really good guy, I've felt that for a long time, he's going to be very much involved in the campaign," Trump said. "We're going to see if we can put something together and win it."

Trump hasn't campaigned in Minnesota ahead of the primary election on Tuesday, March 5. The radio appearance was his first time talking to media in the state since he lost the 2020 election. He said he doesn't think of Minnesota as "that blue" of a state and he's going to put resources into winning it this fall if he's the nominee.

"We're going to give it a shot, we're going to give it a big shot," he said. "The world has changed a lot in the last couple of years with what's happening with the migrants and what's happening with inflation."

©2024 StarTribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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Mike Lindell’s conspiracy-fueled pillow company fights to survive his election obsession

Deanna Winter / Minnesota Reformer — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 13:10:00 GMT

CHASKA — At MyPillow headquarters in Chaska, Minnesota, religion, politics, pillows and a kinetic CEO fuel a never-ending tornado that pillow mogul Mike Lindell flies around in nearly every minute of every day, selling — always selling — his latest set of sheets, pseudo-Biblical prophecy, election fraud theory, grievance.

So many people are out to get him, he says, and his only defense is to sell more pillows (and bath towels, slippers, coffee, mattress covers and numerous other products).

In the lobby at pillow HQ, there’s a Bible. A devotional. A book called “Jesus Always.” A far-right newspaper called the Epoch Times. A conservative, pro-Israel newspaper called the Jewish Voice.

To find Mike Lindell, listen for the booming voice upstairs, where he’s just returned from several weeks traveling the country. A bevy of women orbit around him, often within earshot in case he bellows out their name with a question or demand.

In the morning, he prepares to do “The Jim Bakker Show” with his chief operating officer and son, Darren Lindell, (Three of his four children work for the company) and his chief marketing officer, Jessica Maskovich.

“With all the cancellations, we’re expanding into other areas,” Lindell says, explaining why he’s going on the show of a disgraced televangelist.

Walmart, Kohl’s, J.C. Penney, Wayfair, Bed Bath & Beyond and other companies pulled MyPillow products after Lindell’s prominent White House appearance in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection, and Lindell has been battling since to save his company, as he fends off lawsuits that could obliterate it. Lindell says he has about 1,300 employees, with more seasonal workers coming for the holidays.

Dressed in a light purple dress shirt with a cross necklace peeking out of the collar, Lindell works at a large conference table in his office — never his desk — surrounded by Christian-themed pictures, a closet full of labeled, plastic bins, and an adjoining bathroom and what one presumes is a teal MyPillow towel hanging on the shower door.

Lindell is going over the special offers he’ll promote on Bakker’s show and later, Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast.

Christmas spots will start soon on Fox News, even though Fox won’t let him come on and talk about election fraud anymore, not since voting machine company Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox. Fox settled a separate Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit for nearly $800 million, and Lindell and his company are also being sued by Smartmatic and Dominion for far more than Lindell and his company are worth. Dominion is suing him for $1.3 billion, and Smartmatic for unspecified damages.

He says the media thinks he wanted to overturn the 2020 election to get Trump in office — which of course, all evidence indicates he did — but he now claims he would still be sounding the alarm about election security even if Trump had been re-elected.

“This was an attack on our country,” he says. “This isn’t about Donald Trump.” (Just days later, however, he would make another pilgrimage to see Trump at Mar-a-Lago.)

The topic sends him diving into his favorite rabbit hole, lecturing about voting machines — a campaign that has eaten up his personal fortune, and he says commands 80% of his focus. He’s been ordered to pay $5 million to a software engineer who took him up on a challenge to prove him wrong about 2020 election data.

He says he’s spent millions on this quest and his employee-owned company has lost hundreds of millions of dollars amid the fallout, and employees haven’t gotten a dividend in three years.

“We’ve been attacked everywhere from banks to box stores, the media, IRS, FBI,” he says.

The IRS recently filed two liens against his Texas home and land for nearly $9.5 million.

Lindell says the IRS isn’t allowing a deduction related to his effort to offload $10 million worth of oleandrin, a poisonous plant extract and unproven COVID-19 treatment, to other countries during the pandemic.

Lindell bought a stake in a company producing the dubious treatment, but scientists said it was possibly dangerous and his shipments kept getting stymied by the government until the oleandrin expired. He claimed it as a loss on his personal taxes.

He’s still enraged by a Dominion lawyer’s suggestion that he’s spinning election conspiracies to pump up MyPillow sales.

“If it was a marketing thing, I’m smart enough to say we failed,” Lindell says.

He now claims Republicans are also covering up problems with voting machines.

“Republicans were stealing elections,” Lindell says. “Our biggest blockers have been the Republicans to get rid of these voting machines.”

Lindell wants paper ballots to be hand counted.

While election experts say no voting system is invulnerable, a coalition of federal cybersecurity and election officials concluded the 2020 election was “the most secure in American history.” Hand counting paper ballots is also slower, less accurate and more vulnerable to the very fraud Lindell claims to be fighting.

Lindell switches from preparing for the Bakker show to talking about his conservative social media platforms — where you can watch Lindell TV 24/7. He’s poured millions into creating his own mouthpieces; he says he put $12 million into his nightly Lindell TV show, which has run for two years on his own servers. He says about 4 million people watch FrankSpeech — conservative broadcast network and video platform — per month.

He says he’s persuaded about 200 counties to “go machine free” and hopes to get them all on board next year.

Then he turns to his marketing guru and says, “Tell me what you want me to wear.”

While Maskovich gets up and grabs the options, Lindell starts a separate phone conversation with his procurement director Bob Sohns, saying, “Bob Bob Bob Bob Bob.”

They’re debating which bills to pay that day.

“They both need to be paid or?” Lindell says. “175 based on last week.”

“Do we need to post-date it so it looks good?”

“Go ahead and mail that one.”

“How much do we have at Lindell Management? Does that include Bannon?”

“Pull those loans.”

Lindell opts to wear the white shirt and blue jacket, then goes into the bathroom to change and starts talking on the phone again.

This is how it goes all day long.

‘It was a Hardee’s, not a Wendy’s’

Lindell is hawking products on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast — which one study found had more inaccuracies than any other podcast.

Since getting dropped by multiple retailers, Lindell says, Bannon regularly has him on the podcast to do “basically a commercial” like those he used to do on mainstream stations to launch his pillows in 2014.

Bannon was charged with duping thousands of people who donated money to “build the wall” on America’s southern border; much of the money was misspent but Trump pardoned him on his way out of office. He has since been recharged and has pleaded innocent.

“They’re tryin’ to bankrupt Mike Lindell,” Bannon says in the leadup to the segment. When they go after Lindell, they’re going after

you

, Bannon tells his audience.

This kind of Manichean, existentialist politics of survival sells — and apparently sells pillows, too.

“Mike Lindell, how do we keep MyPillow open?” Bannon asks.

Yes, Lindell says, the FBI attacked my call center reps but you can buy some “last chance flash sale slippers” for $39.98 or a six-pack of towels for $29.98, and don’t forget the promo code, the Bannonesque WAR ROOM.

“Thanks for working on the plan,” Lindell tells Bannon before signing off.

The plan to secure elections, that is. He has one. It involves a wireless device that monitors polling places to see if voting machines are connected to the internet.

On the podcast again in the afternoon, Bannon praises Lindell for risking his company to investigate election fraud, mentioning the FBI seizing his cell phone while he was in a Wendy’s drive-thru about a year ago.

“Fact check: It was a Hardee’s not a Wendy’s,” Lindell says.

Though today Lindell did have a KFC two-piece meal for lunch.

Feeling the love from a fallen televangelist

In less than half an hour, Lindell is back in the studio to do “The Jim Bakker Show.” Four employees scurry around trying to find a suitable pillow for the segment. It has to be the perfect pillow for the moment. The right size and fluffiness.

Once found, Lindell plumps it up, turns it, preps it, fluffs it until it’s just right and then cradles it in his hands and puts on his trademark salesman smile for the camera.

Bakker is a former televangelist who rode the gospel to fame in the 1970s and 1980s with his “Praise the Lord” show, propelled in part by his glitzy, heavily made-up blonde wife Tammy Faye, who was born in International Falls, Minnesota.

It all came crashing down in the late 1980s amid a sex scandal, criminal indictments and news of Rolls Royces, a jet and an air-conditioned doghouse. He and Tammy Faye broke up, and she died a gay icon for her compassion for LGBT people and HIV patients during the height of the AIDS epidemic.

Jim Bakker served five years in prison for fraud, and now he’s back with a revived TV show and empire that looks very much like the old one, complete with a new heavily made-up blonde wife named Lori (who bears a striking resemblance to Tammy Faye).

Lindell and the Bakkers chat by video briefly before the show begins.

The Bakkers ask about American Express, which Lindell says reduced MyPillow’s credit line from a million dollars to $100,000 in September. He says his company “had to use debit cards” to get by until they got a new card.

“Demonic,” Lori says.

Jim Bakker wants to know why

they

don’t like Lindell.

“Because I want to get rid of the electronic voting machines,” Lindell says.

“The bottom line is they don’t want me talking anymore,” he says.

“They hate you as much as Trump I guess,” Jim Bakker says.

During the on-air segment, the Bakkers are adoring fans, repeatedly saying, “We love you.”

Jim Bakker commiserates, saying “the left” has been trying to take him off TV for years. Then he claims he lost $20 million through lawsuits.

Lindell is undeterred.

“They’ll never stop my voice,” he says, even though, as he acknowledges to Bakker, “My money is gone.”

Lindell has long followed his instincts, beliefs and sometimes even literal dreams, which took his company far, but now have put it on the line. It’s a privately held company, which means MyPillow’s financial health is opaque. Lindell is the primary stockholder.

“I’ll keep going,” he says.

‘I don’t think he’s demanding; he’s particular’

Lindell estimates he’s in Texas about half the time, and Minnesota about one-third of the time, so when he’s at headquarters, it’s a machine gun of questions, answers, demands, commentary, wardrobe changes, makeup, cameras and lights.

His employees try to get questions answered, documents signed, decisions made, but he’s in motion, jabbering on while often scrawling madly on paper.

Former Chaska Mayor Bob Roepke served on the MyPillow board of directors for several years before leaving in January 2021 after Lindell became enamored with Trump.

“He was really engaged with that relationship,” Roepke says. “We just weren’t aligned in terms of national leadership.”

Roepke decided it was best to resign, but says Lindell is a true entrepreneur who touched every component of his business.

Lindell helped friends from his past — his journey from drug user to pillow salesman is legendary — and was committed to his employees, Roepke says.

“We talked about using automation to reduce the workforce, but he didn’t want any part of that,” he says. “It was really important for him to employ those who had challenges in their life.”

Lindell told the Bakkers his employees have been great throughout the storm. And also, “I treat every employee like my only employee.”

But clearly he can be abrupt and demanding and rarely says “thank you” or “please.”

“I don’t think he’s demanding — he’s particular,” says Jennifer Pauly Hunter, vice president of tech services for MyPillow.

He wants to know the price of the promoted products down to the penny, and debates whether it’s the right price point. He needs the pillow to look just right on TV. He needs the perfect outfit for the interview.

‘Tell me another problem’

Back at the conference table, Lindell is on the phone with his controller, Thomas.

An employee walks in and Lindell asks about numbers. She says they’re “up 15,000.” In other words, MyPillow sales were up $15,000 for the day compared to the same moment in time the day before.

Lindell says each afternoon they should be at about a half-million dollars in sales.

“Bannon’s at 29-five,” an employee tells him. That means their commercials had generated $2,950 by that point.

“So is he happy?” Lindell asks.

“He wants to do $100,000 today,” the employee says. In other words, Bannon wants MyPillow to make $100,000 today, not knowing the company normally makes about five times that, Lindell says.

Wardlow quietly walks in the office again. He tells Lindell they need to sign the Deutsche Bank settlement and talk about the MyBooty lawsuit.

Lindell says he’s meeting with all the attorneys general in the nation. (A meeting with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison seems doubtful.)

“What else you got?” Lindell says. “Tell me another problem.”

‘It’s hard to have lawyers who don’t believe in what you’re doing’

Lindell returns from an interview about LifeWave phototherapy patches — which several employees are wearing and swear cure migraines and other ailments.

Pauly Hunter goes over Lindell’s “to do” list.

“You still need to call Mar-a-Lago and your lawyer,” she says. He’s going to Florida to meet with the CEO of PublicSquare — a right-wing business digital directory — and meet with Trump at his Palm Beach resort.

He calls an attorney interested in representing him in lawsuits with voting machine companies Smartmatic and Dominion.

“It’s hard to have lawyers who don’t believe in what you’re doing,” Lindell tells the lawyer.

He’s fine with the retainer. He asks if they have a plane so they can meet up while he’s traveling.

He later says he and MyPillow decided to part ways with the attorneys because the bills were $2 million per month. They’re going with a new firm that is “10 times cheaper,” he says.

The Minneapolis and Washington law firms told federal judges they’re owed millions in legal fees.

And now he’s off and talking about the various places that are moving away from voting machines.

If voting machines can be manipulated, who’s doing the manipulating? He’s not sure, but thinks the CIA is involved, and the Deep State, and the “uniparty.”

That night, Lindell does an online-streamed show, where he talks about election security and takes calls.

Brian in Minnesota wants to know if he ever got his cell phone back from the FBI. No he didn’t, he says, and there are pictures of his grandkids on it.

“They’re turning up the heat on MyPillow because they know our plan is gonna work,” he says.

He leaves the office at 7 p.m., and says he’ll spend the next four hours at home reading 433 emails and 73 texts before returning at 8 a.m. tomorrow.

This article was produced and published by

Minnesota Reformer

and was republished by Forum Communications under a creative commons license. ]]>

Trump indicted after special counsel investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election

Sarah N. Lynch, Jacqueline Thomsen and Andrew Goudsward / Reuters — Tue, 01 Aug 2023 22:04:48 GMT

Donald Trump was indicted on Tuesday for his wide-ranging attempts to overturn the 2020 election, the third time in four months that the former U.S. president has been criminally charged even as he campaigns to regain the presidency next year.

The four-count, 45-page indictment charges Republican Trump with conspiring to defraud the U.S. by preventing Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's victory and to deprive voters of their right to a fair election.

Then-President Trump pushed fraud claims he knew to be untrue, pressured state and federal officials -- including Vice President Mike Pence -- to alter the results and finally incited a violent assault on the U.S. Capitol in a desperate attempt to undermine American democracy and cling to power, prosecutors said.

Trump was ordered to make an initial appearance in federal court in Washington on Thursday. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who was appointed by Trump's predecessor Barack Obama.

The charges stem from Special Counsel Jack Smith's sprawling investigation into allegations Trump sought to reverse his loss to Biden. Despite a dizzying and growing array of legal troubles, Trump has solidified his status as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, according to public opinion polls.

Weeks of assertions that the election had been stolen culminated in a fiery Trump speech on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress met to certify the results. Soon after, his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in a bid to stop Congress from formalizing Biden's victory.

In a brief statement to reporters, Smith placed the blame for the violence squarely on Trump's shoulders.

"The attack on our nation's Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was an unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy. As described in the indictment, it was fueled by lies -- lies by the defendant, targeted at obstructing the bedrock function of the U.S. government," Smith said.

Phony slate of electors

Trump and others organized fraudulent slates of electors in seven states, all of which he lost, to submit their votes to be counted and certified as official by Congress on Jan. 6, the indictment said.

The indictment lays out numerous examples of Trump's election falsehoods and notes that close advisers, including senior intelligence officials, told him repeatedly that the election results were legitimate.

"These claims were false, and the defendant knew that they were false," prosecutors wrote.

When the push to certify the fake electors failed, Trump sought to pressure Vice President Mike Pence not to allow the certification of the election to go forward, and took advantage of the chaos outside the Capitol to do so, according to prosecutors. During the violence, Trump rebuffed calls from his advisers to issue a calming message.

"The Defendant attempted to use a crowd of supporters that he had gathered in Washington, D.C. to pressure the Vice President to fraudulently alter the election results," the indictment reads.

In a statement, the Trump campaign said he had always followed the law and characterized the indictment as a "persecution" reminiscent of Nazi Germany.

"President Trump will not be deterred by disgraceful and unprecedented political targeting!" it added.

The indictment also includes six unnamed co-conspirators. Based on the descriptions, they appear to include Trump's former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who called several state lawmakers in the weeks following the 2020 election to pressure them not to certify their state's results; former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who tried to get himself installed as attorney general so he could launch voter fraud investigations in Georgia and other swing states; and attorney John Eastman, who advanced the erroneous legal theory that Pence could block the electoral certification.

In a statement, Giuliani's adviser, Ted Goodman, accused the Biden administration of targeting Trump simply for "daring to ask questions" about the election. Clark and Eastman did not respond to requests for comment.

The most serious charge against Trump carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, though sentencing is based on numerous factors and is subject to the judge's discretion.

Trump already had become the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges. He has sought to portray all of the prosecutions as part of a politically motivated witch hunt aimed at preventing his return to power.

Tuesday's charges represent a second round of federal charges by Smith, who was appointed a special counsel in November by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Trump pleaded not guilty after a federal grand jury in Miami convened by the special counsel charged him in June in a 37-count indictment over his unlawful retention of classified government documents after leaving office in 2021 and obstructing justice. Prosecutors accused him of risking some of the most sensitive U.S. national security secrets.

Last Thursday, prosecutors added three more criminal counts against Trump, bringing the total to 40, accusing him of ordering employees to delete security videos as he was under investigation for retaining the documents.

The first charges brought against Trump emerged in March when a grand jury convened by Manhattan's district attorney indicted him. Trump in April pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts accusing him of falsifying business records concerning a payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she said she had with him. Trump has denied the encounter.

Trump, 77, leads a crowded field of Republican presidential candidates as he seeks a rematch with Biden, 80, next year.

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Trump grand jury report recommends perjury charges for witnesses

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 17:19:05 GMT

ATLANTA — A special grand jury in Fulton County that examined efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia said it believed one or more witnesses it heard from may have committed perjury.

“A majority of the Grand Jury believes that perjury may have been committed by one or more witnesses testifying before it,” the report said. “The Grand Jury recommends that the District Attorney seek appropriate indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling.”

It did not specify which witnesses.

Four pages of what appeared to be a nine-page final report were released Thursday, providing the public its first peek into the findings of the 23-member panel, which spent eight months working behind closed doors.

They interviewed 75 witnesses, including top state officials, former White House aides and several of Trump’s closest advisers. But jurors did not seek testimony from the probe’s central figure: Trump himself, according to his Georgia attorneys.

In an order issued earlier this week, Fulton Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said he would release the report’s introduction, conclusion and a segment in which grand jurors outlined their concern that some witnesses may have lied under oath during their testimony.

But McBurney said the panel’s recommendations on who should be charged with state crimes would remain under seal until Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis makes a decision about indictments.

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Pence to fight subpoena in probe of Trump's 2020 election denial

Sarah N. Lynch and Susan Heavey / Reuters — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 18:20:00 GMT

Republican former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence is preparing to resist a grand jury subpoena for testimony about efforts to overturn then-President Donald Trump's 2020 reelection loss, a source familiar with his plans said on Tuesday.

Pence will argue that his role as president of the Senate — making him a member of the legislative branch — shields him from certain Justice Department demands, rather than cite executive privilege as then-vice president, the source said.

A representative for Pence did not respond to a request for comment on his decision to challenge Special Counsel Jack Smith's request, first reported by Politico. Smith's office declined to comment.

Smith, a political independent and former war crimes prosecutor, is investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election that included Trump supporters' deadly Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol as Congress met to certify Democrat Joe Biden's victory.

Trump has repeatedly made false claims that he lost the 2020 election to Biden through massive voter fraud. He has also harshly criticized Pence for not blocking Congress' certification on Jan. 6 as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, some chanting: "Hang Mike Pence."

Pence's chief of staff, Marc Short, and Greg Jacob, who was Pence's top legal counsel, along with other former top White House lawyers have previously appeared before the grand jury now being led by Smith.

A now-disbanded House of Representatives panel that investigated the attack also sought testimony from Pence, who did not appear. It ultimately called for federal prosecutors to charge Trump with four crimes, including insurrection.

Trump, who is running again for president in 2024, has called the probes part of an ongoing political witch hunt. Pence, who publicly detailed some of his conversations with Trump about the 2020 election in a book last year, is weighing a presidential bid himself and has urged Republicans to move past their White House loss.

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Fox chief Rupert Murdoch to be deposed in $1.6B Dominion defamation case

Helen Coster and Jack Queen / Reuters — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 17:00:00 GMT

Fox Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch will be questioned under oath on Thursday and Friday in a defamation lawsuit over his network’s coverage of unfounded vote-rigging claims during the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Election technology company Dominion Voting Systems says Fox News Network amplified false claims that its machines were used to rig the election against Republican Donald Trump and in favor of his Democratic rival Joe Biden, who won the election. Dominion is seeking $1.6 billion in damages.

Murdoch, 91, is the most high-profile figure to face questioning in the case.

Fox has argued that it had a right to report on election-fraud allegations made by Trump and his lawyers, and that Dominion’s lawsuit would stifle press freedom. Fox referred Reuters to an earlier statement saying: “There is nothing more newsworthy than covering the president of the United States and his lawyers making allegations of voter fraud."

A judge rejected the network’s bid to toss the case in December 2021. "From the highest levels down, Fox knowingly spread lies about Dominion," the election machine company said in a statement.

Murdoch is expected to be questioned in person in Los Angeles on Thursday and Friday by lawyers for Dominion, according to a filing in Delaware Superior Court. The session will be closed to the public. Murdoch’s deposition had previously been scheduled for Dec. 13 and Dec. 14, 2022.

Dominion has also sought communications from Murdoch, his son Lachlan Murdoch and other Fox News personnel, as it seeks to prove that the network either knew the statements it aired were false or recklessly disregarded their accuracy. That is the standard of “actual malice” that public figures must prove to prevail in defamation cases.

Doug Mirell, a defamation lawyer who has followed the litigation, said he believes Dominion has an "air-tight" case for actual malice because Fox hosts pressed forward with vote-rigging allegations "well after it was quite clear that these claims were demonstrably false."

Dominion alleged in its March 2021 lawsuit that Fox amplified the false theories to boost its ratings and stay abreast of hard-right competitors including One America News Network, which Dominion is also suing. The complaint cited instances in which Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell appeared on Fox News and falsely claimed Dominion software may have manipulated vote counts in favor of Biden. A five-week trial in the case is scheduled to begin on April 17.

The deposition comes as special committees of the boards of directors for Fox Corp and News Corp consider a proposal from Murdoch to re-combine, nearly a decade after the companies split.

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Capitol riot panel recommends charging Trump with insurrection, obstruction

Patricia Zengerle — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 16:27:59 GMT

WASHINGTON — A U.S. House of Representatives panel on Monday, Dec. 19, asked federal prosecutors to charge Donald Trump with obstruction and insurrection for his role in sparking the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol.

The Democratic-led select committee asked the Justice Department to bring charges against the Republican former president, including obstruction of an official proceeding of Congress, conspiracy to defraud the United States and insurrection.

The request is nonbinding, but may increase pressure on prosecutors, who are carrying out multiple investigations of Trump, to act.

Monday's meeting is likely the final public gathering of a panel that spent 18 months probing the unprecedented attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power by thousands of Trump backers, inspired by his false claims that his 2020 election loss to Democratic President Joe Biden was the result of widespread fraud.

"If we are to survive as a nation of laws and democracy, this can never happen again," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, the select committee's chairperson, as the meeting began.

Slamming Trump for summoning the mob to the Capitol nearly two years ago, Thompson also criticized the former president for undermining faith in the democratic system.

"If the faith is broken, so is our democracy. Donald Trump broke that faith," Thompson said.

Trump has already launched a campaign to seek the Republican nomination to run for the White House again in 2024.

The select committee's work is one of a series of investigations into the riot. Five people, including a police officer, died during or shortly after the incident and more than 140 police officers were injured. The Capitol suffered millions of dollars in damage.

"Among the most shameful of this committee's findings. was the President Trump sat in the dining room off the Oval Office, watching the violent riot at the Capitol on television," Rep. Liz Cheney, one of two Republicans on the committee, said.

Trump has dismissed the many investigations he faces as politically motivated. He says the Jan.6 committee, dominated by Democrats, is biased against him.

A jury has already found members of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia guilty of sedition for their role in the attack and a special counsel, Jack Smith, is leading probes into Trump's efforts to overturn his loss and his removal of classified documents from the White House.

Trump has faced a series of legal problems since leaving office. His real estate company was convicted on Dec. 6 of carrying out a 15-year-long criminal scheme to defraud tax authorities.

"The highly partisan Unselect Committee is illegally leaking confidential info to anyone that will listen," the former president wrote on his Truth Social platform before the meeting. "How much longer are Republicans, and American Patriots in general, going to allow this to happen."

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Minnesota voting officials: Misinformation fueling election skepticism

Kirsti Marohn / MPR News — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 18:53:40 GMT

BRAINERD -- With the 2022 election less than two months away, Deborah Erickson is deep into the planning and prep work that goes into a running county-wide vote, such as finalizing ballots and training election judges.

But the Crow Wing County's administrative services director is also spending considerable time talking about the last election almost two years ago.

"I did not think I'd still be talking and working on 2020 stuff in September of 2022,” Erickson said.

For months, a group of area residents has been speaking at Crow Wing County board meetings, questioning the 2020 vote and the process the county uses to count ballots.

They have questioned the county's use of Dominion voting machines, suggesting they could be hacked or tampered with. They've asked for detailed voting data from 2020, and unsuccessfully asked for a state audit of the election results.

"I'm not saying any of us are involved in manipulation of votes,” said Carol Ottoson of Crosslake, at a board meeting in August. “But I hope you would realize with machines, it can happen right under our noses, and we would never even suspect a thing.”

Erickson said she's happy to answer questions, and even welcomes that part of her job.

But she said some are based on misinformation being spread online that's either inaccurate, or doesn't pertain to elections in Minnesota or Crow Wing County.

"With information available at our fingertips, whether we like it or not, sometimes the information that people are seeing is not true and accurate,” Erickson said.

Across Minnesota, county officials are encountering people questioning the results of the 2020 election and demanding changes to the voting process, although there is no proof of widespread fraud or other problems.

The 2020 election went very smoothly in Crow Wing County, in spite of the pandemic and more people than ever casting ballots early or by mail, Erickson said. She said there was no evidence of any discrepancies.

"What we've been trying to do is explain our processes and show what all the safeguards are that are in place, hopefully to instill some confidence in folks,” she said.

In Minnesota, those safeguards include testing optical scan machines in public before election day; not connecting the machines to the Internet during voting so they're not vulnerable to hacking; using paper ballots so there's a record that can be checked; and having election judges from different political parties at polling sites.

There’s also a requirement to audit the votes in randomly chosen precincts after the election. The Crow Wing County board recently voted to double the number of precincts it will audit this fall, from two to four.

But that didn't satisfy all of the skeptics. Some want the county to stop using vote counting machines altogether and return to the days of hand counting paper ballots.

With the number of races on the ballot, Erickson said that's impractical, and likely would be less accurate.

"It would take multiple days, oodles of dollars,” she said. “And there is more opportunity for error with a hand count process than there is in using a trusted verified system like an optical scan system."

In other pockets of the state

These questions aren't being raised only in Crow Wing County. Local residents and sometimes outside activists have attended board meetings in Sherburne, Carver and other counties, sometimes repeating unproven or debunked claims of election fraud.

Jennifer Peterson-Ross, a Crookston business owner, recently voiced her concerns at a Polk County board meeting.

She said she hasn't been politically active in the past, but has grown concerned about election integrity after learning of allegations of fraud and ballot box stuffing from alternative news sources and films such as "2000 Mules,” released earlier this year by conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza.

"I didn't approach this from the left or the right,” Peterson-Ross said. “I am just an American that wants a free and safe election. I want to know that when I cast my vote, that my vote is ultimately what the vote is.”

She said elections officials have responded to her questions with defensiveness, which she called “the most bizarre thing.”

Elections officials said they've tried to respond to the call for more transparency, but the groups' demands keep changing.

"Every citizen should feel free to ask questions, including hard questions of their government at every level,” said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon, a DFLer.

However, he said, the recent challenging of county officials “feels very different.”

“This isn't about finding common ground on election administration,” Simon said. “This is about an organized outside effort to undermine and poison well earned public confidence in our election system."

Simon said many of the accusations are baseless, such as claims about Dominion voting machines. Six of Minnesota's 87 counties use them, and there have been no issues, he said.

"We know, because of the various checks and balances we have in our system in Minnesota, that all those tabulating machines perform up to very rigorous standards,” Simon said. “All of that checking and that balancing is done in full view of the public."

Some requests are impossible to meet, he said, such as numerous data requests counties are receiving for the cast vote record, or CVR, an electronic record of how an individual voted.

Vote tabulating machines can only produce a CVR if that feature is turned on ahead of time, which no Minnesota county did in 2020, Simon said. And there are questions whether such data is even public under Minnesota law, he said.

The Crow Wing County board agreed to produce cast vote records for this fall's election for anyone who requests it. But Erickson said the report needs to be randomized, so a ballot can't be traced back to an individual voter.

"Every voter's right to cast a secret ballot is ultimately that bedrock of our democracy, of making sure that we have that safeguard in place,” she said.

In Sherburne County, a group has repeatedly raised concerns about election integrity, although county auditor-treasurer Diane Arnold said there were no inconsistencies with the 2020 results.

"The only thing that was unusual was COVID-19," she said.

Arnold said she and her staff follow election procedures carefully. In fact, a recount in the close state Senate District 14 race two years ago found no discrepancies in the vote total.

"I'll stand behind my numbers,” Arnold said. “I know what they are, and they're solid."

State and local officials and the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Minnesota have launched efforts to try to debunk misinformation about elections.

They're also encouraging people to sign up to be one of Minnesota's 30,000 election judges, a critical role that offers a firsthand look at the voting process.

"In a lot of ways, I feel like that could be a good cure,” said Michelle Witte, the league's executive director. “Because once you get in and see how the system's run, you'll see that what you think can happen can't."

Arnold said Sherburne County has seen a “huge outpouring” in people wanting to become an election judge, which she believes is a positive thing.

“If younger people are able to do it, that would be awesome — to really learn the system and learn, learn all the checks and balances and stuff that we have in place,” she said.

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