Sec of State cites staff member’s “lapse of judgment” in partisan polling link error

“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.” That’s the statement from Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon’s office after it was reported that Minnesota voters were having issues finding polling information on the Secretary’s website on this Super Tuesday. Simon says the moment the error was discovered “we corrected the link.” Earlier today, some voters who went to the Secretary’s website were being re-directed to a non-partisan Voting Info Project site, and some reported being directed to the progressive site BoldProgressives.org–which has endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren. Simon says there is “no evidence that Minnesota’s voting systems were hacked or otherwise interfered with in any way.” According to Simon, the link was reportedly active for about 17 minutes. Here is a link to Secretary Simon’s full statement.