By Bruce Karnick

“I ______ solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will perform the duties of election judge according to law and the best of my ability and will diligently endeavor to prevent fraud, deceit, and abuse in conducting this election. I will perform my duties in a fair and impartial manner and not attempt to create an advantage for my party or for any candidate.”

An oath each election judge shall repeat and sign a form regarding before assuming the duties of the office, per MN statute 204B.24 ELECTION JUDGES; OATH. The oath shall be attached to the summary statement of the election returns of that precinct. If there is no individual present who is authorized to administer oaths, the election judges may administer the oath to each other.

Each and every judge at every one of the eight polling locations in Hastings utter these words before they are allowed to work as an election official. They must sign a document with the same words, and they take these words quite seriously. Once the words are spoken, what actual safeguards are put in place to prevent fraud? According to one lead judge, Katy Lindberg, “I have to verify information every hour, make sure these numbers match the number on the ballot counting machine.”

The numbers she referred to are easy to explain, but first, the process of voting, in person, at the polls, in MN.

As a voter walks into the polls, they are greeted by an election official to verify they are at the right poll. Once that is confirmed, they are directed to the next step, the check in table. Here, an official asks if you are already registered to vote, and if you are, they get your first and last name and enter it into the ‘Poll Pad’, an iPad setup with polling software. The software then checks the database to verify if you had already voted via an absentee ballot or earlier that day. If you had voted absentee and that ballot was accepted, it clearly shows the official. “We had a few come in that voted absentee to test the process,” Lindberg said, “they were pleasantly surprised to see that it works exactly as it’s supposed to.”

When the information is verified in the poll pad, a receipt prints out that the voter must sign. The official files the receipt and directs the voter to the table to get their ballot. The ballot official gives the voter directions on how to fill it out, then directs them to one of the empty booths. Once done, the voter brings their completed ballot to the counting machine where they insert it to be counted. Once the machine dings, the voter can grab their sticker and head home. Normally, the process takes about 10 minutes.

If the voter is not registered, the process is only slightly different at the poll pad table. A new registration adds a couple minutes at most. See Election results page 5

Kallie was excited to vote in her first Presidental election opportunity. She loved how easy and fast it was to vote at Our Saviors. Photo by Bruce Karnick Election Results

From Page 1

The official asks for the new voter’s ID. The ID is placed into a holder that allows the poll pad to scan the ID an auto-populate the fields on the registration. The official verifies the information with both the ID and the new voter. Once verified that it is entered correctly, the process is the same, a receipt prints, voter signs it and is directed to the ballot table. Of course, there are enough volunteers to assist voters if they run into questions during the process.

The advantage of the poll pads is obvious from the start. They connect to a live database to verify information and make sure the voter has not already voted. They also keep track of how many voters total have checked in on that particular pad as well as how many new voters registered. That brings us back to what does a head election judge need to verify every hour?

The head judge has to tally all the total voters from each poll pad and compare the total number there with the total number of ballots put into the counting machine. They also have to make sure they have a physical paper receipt for each voter. All three numbers must match, the counted signed slips, total number of voters on the poll pads and the number of ballots counted in the machine. If there is any discrepancy, they need to correct it right then and there.

How did election day go for Hastings? Well according to the five different polling sites visited by The Journal. Each polling site gave the same basic report regarding the traffic of the day. There were lines to start the day with people waiting to get in before the 7:00 opening. Most of the early lines were caught up within 45 minutes. St. Johns had their line done in 20, but they were the least busy of all the polls overall. Some polls had mini rushes throughout the day, United Methodist had the most memorable rush. “We had about 100 people in line around 3-3:30,” said Lindberg, “it’s easy to remember because that’s when our counting machine shut down unexpectedly.”

The stress of recalling the incident was pretty clear on her face. What they were not aware of was, the outlet they plugged the machine into was not functioning so the machine had been running on battery power all day. That battery ran out around 3:30. “We had to hold 87 ballots while we figured out what was wrong,” Lindberg explained. “Once the machine was up and running, it took about 20 minutes to run the held ballots through.”

She only had a few people that were leery of the hold. Lindberg and her other officials were quick to point out that they had people working from both parties to ensure no shenanigans took place and she was quick to show a few the oath they took to become judges. “I just wanted them to feel confident that their vote would be properly counted. The three people that were most worried had already had their absentee ballot rejected and this just added to their concern,” Lindberg said. “I get it, and I did everything I could to help them feel comfortable with the situation.”

Other than that small hiccup, no other issues were reported around town.

What did residents have to say about their voting experience?

“It was quick and easy. I went a little later in the evening knowing it would be a little less busy and there was nobody in there but the people working. It took maybe 10 minutes,” said Shawn Matson.

“United Methodist was set up really well,” Justin Schmidt said, “Very straight forward and super quick.”

“It was my second time voting and my first time voting for a President,” said Kallie Lauder. “It was really easy, very quick in and out too.”

How did Hastings vote?

Statistics from the Secretary of State website shows that Hastings had 14,489 voters registered prior to election day. Of course, new, unregistered voters came out to vote too, but those numbers are not on the SoS website. The Journal did reach out to City of Hastings election officials on Friday last week and our request for information was not answered or acknowledged. Here is what we know from the SoS website. Understand, some percentage totals may be slightly off, (.01) due to rounding.

Registered voters: 14,489 Presidential Votes: 13,291 Trump/Pence(R): 6,698 – 50.4% Biden/Harris(D): 6,218 – 46.78% Other: 375 – 2.82% US Senate Votes: 13,110 Jason Lewis(R): 6,210 – 47.37% Tina Smith(D): 5,680 – 43.33% Other: 1,220 – 9.31% US House Votes: 13,021 Tyler Kistner(R): 6,226 – 47.82% Angie Craig(D): 5,830 – 44.77% Other: 965 – 7.41% MN Senate Votes: 12,878 Leilani Holmstadt(R): 6,724 – 52.21% Karla Bigham(D): 6,134 – 47.63% MN House Votes: 12,908 Tony Jurgens(R): 7,124 – 55.19% Kelsey Waits(D): 5,764 – 44.65% Soil and Water – Kevin Chamberlain ran unopposed, 10,478 votes, 99.06% The First Judicial District had one contested race between: Joseph Carter: 5,390 – 53.89% Martin “Marty” Judge: 4,562 – 45.62% City Council had three council members running unopposed. Tina Folch in Ward one earned 94.04% of the votes cast, Lisa Siebenaler Leifeld in Ward three earned 97.49% of the votes cast, Trevor Lund in Ward four earned 98.50% of the votes cast. The contested seat on the council had a total of 2,764 votes cast.

Joe Balsanek: 1,044 – 37.77% Jen Fox: 1,696 – 61.36% Full election result data is available on the Secretary of State website. Simply search ‘MN election results’ or visit their website: https://electionresults.sos.state. mn.us/

Shawn, seen here completing his ballot, was glad to be in and out of St. Phillips quickly, he expected a little line and there was none, which was a pleasent surprise. Photo by Bruce Karnick