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Resident urges Blaine council to oppose Anoka County’s move to electronic poll pads
Summary
A public commenter told Blaine City Council the county intends to buy new electronic “poll pads” and urged cities to demand a return to paper backups, citing cost, security, and lack of local voting on the change.
Derek Lind, a representative with ACID and a resident of Ramsey, told the Blaine City Council on Feb. 19 that Anoka County is scheduled to purchase electronic poll pads and urged the city to push back and return to paper poll pads.
Lind said the county told cities at a Feb. 11 meeting that the purchase would cost about $100,000, but he said county documents indicate the purchase price is $873,000. “If you go back to paper, it’s cheap,” Lind said, adding that the county recently raised property taxes 16.86 percent and that now is not the time for large purchases.
Lind also raised security and governance concerns. He described the devices as “an iPad with cellular service” running third-party software and argued paper records are inherently more secure. He said most cities in the county never held a council vote when the poll pads were introduced in 2018 and pointed to a joint powers agreement used by a Dakota County city as an example of formal city-level approval.
The council did not take action on the comment. Members heard Lind’s three main points — cost, security, and the lack of a local vote — during the open forum portion of the meeting. No staff or county official responded on the record during the meeting, and no formal council directive was recorded.
Why it matters: Electronic poll pads have been adopted in many Minnesota jurisdictions since 2018; the devices speed voter check-in but raise questions about procurement, data handling, and local oversight. Lind asked Blaine to press for more transparency and for city-level approval procedures before the county proceeds.
Details and next steps: Lind left contact information in the materials he handed council members and said he is taking the same message to other cities in Anoka County. The council did not schedule any follow-up on the record at the Feb. 19 meeting.
Quotation: “We think that is a wrong idea. We think that we should return back to paper poll pads,” Derek Lind said during the open forum.
Provenance: Lind’s remarks occurred during open forum (public comment) and are documented in the Feb. 19 council transcript.
