Minnesota Secretary Of State - Secretary Simon Statement on Pollfinder Issues
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Secretary Simon Statement on Pollfinder Issues

March 3, 2020

SAINT PAUL -- Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon today issued the following statement about issues with the Office's pollfinder tool:

“As many are now aware, our online pollfinder was inaccessible for a period of time earlier today. We have now restored service to that tool. We have no evidence that Minnesota’s voting systems were hacked or otherwise interfered with in any way.

Our policy in the event of technical issues is that voters are redirected to find their information via the designated backup, the nonpartisan Voting Information Project.

In an urgent attempt to restore service, a staff person diverged from our emergency plan and, in a serious lapse of judgment, linked to a partisan website that contained polling place information. The moment this error was discovered, we corrected the link. The link in question was active for approximately 17 minutes.

Anyone who knows me knows that I place the highest possible value on the nonpartisanship of this office, and I deeply regret this error. Every Minnesota voter deserves a voting experience free of partisan influence, and I am committed to providing exactly that.

My office will provide any updates as they are needed. Given the events of today, I’ve chosen not to attend scheduled activities at the legislature this afternoon. Instead, I’ll be working closely with staff in our office to make sure the rest of the day goes smoothly and we can reliably report results this evening.”