Minnesota Secretary of State blames staff member for Pollfinder error that redirected voters to partisan website
(FOX 9) - Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon is blaming a staffer for a “serious lapse of judgment” that directed Minnesota presidential primary voters looking for their polling place to a partisan website after the state’s online portal crashed.
The Secretary of State’s office Pollfinder website was down for a period Tuesday morning as people were trying to look up where to vote in the state’s presidential primary election. A message read, “Due to heavy demand, you may be redirected to a trusted external site to find your polling place information.”
However, some people reported that they were redirected instead to the partisan website boldprogressive.org, a pro-Elizabeth Warren site.
“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,” Simon said in an emailed statement Tuesday afternoon. Simon said the link was up for 17 minutes.
Simon said the state’s Pollfinder website had not been hacked or interfered with. Minnesota is one of 14 states holding Super Tuesday presidential nominating contests. At least one other state, Texas, reported problems with its poll finder website because of heavy web traffic.
Simon backed out of a scheduled appearance at the Senate State Government committee Tuesday afternoon, where Republicans on the committee planned to question him about the error. He said he would spend the rest of the day in his office.
Republicans questioned whether Simon’s office had broken state law in directing voters to a partisan website. They blasted him for not showing up at the committee to answer questions.
“I do not understand why this should fail,” said state Sen. Mary Kiffmeyer, the committee’s GOP chairwoman. “This isn’t even the big election. What concerns us now -- if it can’t handle this, which is a much lower volume (election), what kind of shape are we in for the future?”
Kiffmeyer said the committee would continue to seek answers from the Secretary of State’s office over the issue. She said Simon’s emailed statement “makes you have more questions.”
Simon did not say whether any staffers would be disciplined for the error.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I place the highest possible value on the nonpartisanship of this office, and I deeply regret this error,” he said in his statement. “Every Minnesota voter deserves a voting experience free of partisan influence, and I am committed to providing exactly that.”