The State built a count that cannot be checked — then called the missing files “no data.”

INTERIM INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING
Phillip C. Parrish Intelligence Cell — Operation Shadow Hunt
Unclassified — for public dissemination
September 13, 2026

The State built a count that cannot be checked — then called the missing files “no data.”

This is not a joint campaign statement. It is an interim public record of what Minnesota’s own offices have already put on paper since the August 11 primary, and what they are refusing to put on paper now.

The printed November line is closed. Friday’s contest died on an envelope. The Supreme Court already declined to treat the Contingent Plan as a Minn. Stat. § 204B.44 wrongful act. That is the deadline sheet. It is not a finding that Todd County’s replaced file was imaginary, that Blue Earth’s test deck was imaginary, or that Steve Simon’s own certification packet says the modem sits outside the certificate.

We are not asking anyone to write a name that is not on the ballot. We are asking every Minnesotan to read the State’s pages next to the State’s denials.

I. What the official pages already admit

Todd County. During processing of the August 11 results, staff “inadvertently uploaded an incorrect results file,” found when they balanced final voter counts to the paper reports. The revised file posted at 12:17 a.m. For a window of time the state website showed the wrong totals. In Senate District 5 that change flipped who was ahead after “100% of precincts” had displayed. That is the Auditor-Treasurer’s office, not a podcast. Read the county notice: Todd County Election & Voter Registration Information. Contemporary reporting: Pioneer Press / Forum, Park Rapids Enterprise.

Blue Earth County. Deputy Administrator Michael Stalberger: the first text file uploaded to the statewide system still contained the public-accuracy-test deck — about 17,000 test ballots — because test data had not been cleared. Totals ran higher than turnout. They pulled it and re-uploaded. Mankato Free Press.

Anoka / the certificate. Commissioner Jeff Reinert, on the record: the tabulator carries an EAC path; add the modem and “the entire system became uncertified.” He said roughly two-thirds of Minnesota counties run the same setup. The Secretary of State’s office answered the same reporter that “all elections equipment in Minnesota is certified” under Minn. Stat. § 206.57. Alpha News — Reinert.

Simon’s own EVS 6.5.1.1 packet (Document 20260807, filed February 24, 2026) ends the slogan. The certified component table lists ElectionWare, DS200/300/450/850/950, ExpressVote. It does not list a modem. Sections 3.5.1 and 4:

This Certification Report, as in previous reports, does not cover any modem functions.
This Certification does not extend to or include modems or modem features.
Modeming of unofficial results after the polls close and the results tape has printed is not prohibited.

Minn. Stat. § 206.845, subd. 1 still says the opposite for the machine itself: no network, no wireless, no modem. Transfer of results off the box is supposed to be disk, tape, or other physical media.

So the State’s position, in one paragraph: the certificate excludes the modem; the statute forbids the modem; night numbers still ride a modem after the tape prints; and the press office says everything is certified. That is not a mystery. That is a naked configuration split they have now signed twice — once in Anoka’s interview, once in Simon’s seal.

Read with: Why the State Never Has to Sit in the Other Chair and the equipment supplement: Uncertified equipment configuration.

II. What they will not produce

Chapter 13 requests went to county auditors for six ordinary records: textual cast-vote records, participation lists, statements of votes, zero tapes, closing tapes, incident logs. Textual CVRs are public under § 206.845, subd. 3, minus time/order, method, partial files, sub-ten-vote precincts, and images. ES&S’s own EAC certificates describe the DS200/450/850 as converting marks to electronic CVRs. The machines create the file. The question is whether the county will export the public remainder. EAC certificate (EVS 6.0.6.0 scope): ES&S EVS 6.0.6.0 Certificate and Scope.

Three counties have now answered with three stories. None of them is the statute. CountyOfficial sentenceWhat they cited Crow Wing“Does not create CVRs so there is no responsive data.” Zero/closing tapes “sealed” under § 204B.40. Canvass certificate ~$15. Incident logs ~$12. Pay by September 14 or inspect.§ 13.03; § 204B.40Cottonwood“We don’t have the data” on CVRs. Participation list: inspect in person, ID, signed § 201.091 statement. Items 3–6 public if you send at least $975, no personal checks, second estimate coming.§ 201.091; fee HennepinCVRs “only produced for rank choice voting,” which they did not run in this primary. Item 2 treated as the registered-voter “public information list.” Upload a driver’s license by September 4, 5:00 p.m. or the ticket closes. Tickets D065136 and D065285.§ 201.091

§ 204B.40 seals ballots and certain election materials. It is not a magic stamp on every paper a tabulator already printed. The head judge must still create a printed precinct record after polls close (§ 206.845, subd. 2). Hennepin’s RCV sentence is a production policy. It is not § 206.845. Collapsing “who voted on August 11” into the statewide registered-voter list lets them demand ID and kill the request. § 201.091 does restrict copies of that list. It does not restrict a results tape.

Lyon County, September 1 — after the primary — announced a new DS450 “primarily for Absentee and Mail.” Do not assume August 11 absentees ran on the machine they advertised three weeks later. Lyon County elections: elections@co.lyon.mn.us / 507-537-6724.

III. The file they are still typing

Minn. Stat. § 201.121 gives counties 42 days after an election to finish entering Election Day registrations and voting history — September 22, 2026 for this primary, or October 20 if the auditor notified the Secretary. The SOS county-entry map is a public compliance board: County entry of voting history.

On September 13 that clock is still running. That is why a roster requested in August is being compared to a history file that is still open. It is also why pointing a requester to the SOS registered-voter shop is not an answer to “who voted here on August 11.” SOS list shop: Registered voter list requests.

Screenshot that map today. Screenshot it September 23. Screenshot it October 21. If a county’s history then jumps in a way the produced participation list cannot explain, that is a records exception. Until the deadline, it is the statute they wrote.

The United States already sued Steve Simon for the statewide voter-registration file (United States v. Simon, 25-cv-3761, D. Minn.). Minnesota fought turning it over. You do not get to tell a federal court the list is sensitive and tell Minnesotans the rolls are finished and clean while § 201.121 is still open.

IV. Turnout is context, not a verdict

SOS unofficial county figures (updated August 19, 8:47 p.m.; 4,105 precincts): 3,889,442 registered at 7:00 a.m.; 1,125,957 estimated voters; 28.95% statewide. That 7:00 a.m. roll does not include same-day registrations. Statewide results portal: electionresults.sos.mn.gov/20260811.

High: Cook 50.7%, Faribault 40.2%, Pipestone 39.7%.
Low: Pennington 15.8%, Cottonwood 19.1%, Wilkin 19.8%.
Volume: Hennepin 299,446, Ramsey 112,994, Dakota 92,079.

Cottonwood — the county that wants $975 to photocopy rolls — is the second-lowest turnout county in the state. Hennepin is the volume. Neither number is a fraud count. Both tell you where a missing CVR or a sealed tape matters.

Certified Republican gubernatorial totals the reconciliation will be measured against: Demuth/Wilson 179,683; Lindell/Parrish 134,282; margin 45,401; net swing to change the nomination 22,701; total votes for that nomination 413,605. Source: SOS Governor results index. No honest report will claim those 22,701 until hashed county files say so.

V. How the statute protects the machine

Chapter 209 makes a citizen sue the other candidate to open paper. Five days. Serve it like a summons (§ 209.021). Miss the envelope and no judge reads page one. The Secretary who certified the system is a copy recipient. Costs can follow the contestant. That is why Friday was Parrish and Lindell v. Demuth and Wilson (Ramsey 62-CV-26-5975) and not the citizen v. the State.

We named that here: Why the State Never Has to Sit in the Other Chair.

The other door, § 204B.44, already produced an order that following the Contingent Plan is not, standing alone, a wrongful act. So: contest dies on service; official-error petition dies on the plan; data requests die on “no CVR,” “sealed,” and “upload your license.”

That is not incompetence scattered at random. That is a process that never has to sit for a deposition about the modem.

A hate call the afternoon of the dismissal said “now get on board with Republicans.” The official story is the same demand on better letterhead. Now Get On Board With Republicans — That Was the Threat. An Open Letter to Minnesota. They Pulled the Microphone.

VI. What we are not claiming today

We are not claiming a completed count of non-citizens, dead registrants, or stolen identities from public lists. § 201.091 strips the identifiers that would make that match reliable. Those questions are not testable from the files counties will sell you. They belong in the federal voter-file case and in dated participation lists after September 22.

We are not claiming 22,701 votes have been shown to move. Todd and Blue Earth are real. They are not that number.

We are claiming this, which their paper already carries:

  • The certificate and the modem are not the same object.
  • Two counties put the wrong file on the state site and said so.
  • Three counties will not produce the public textual CVR the statute and the vendor certificate both describe.
  • Tapes are being hidden behind 204B.40.
  • History is still being typed.
  • The contest law makes the State a spectator.
  • Fees and ID are being used as a second seal.

That is naked process. That is what they are exploiting. A constitutional republic counts paper in the open and can show its work. This one shows a slogan.

VII. What happens next

County productions will be hashed, logged, and run against the tests in the project framework: voters vs. ballots, envelope chain, tapes vs. summaries, CVR vs. summary, rollup, snapshot decrements (§ 204C.24, § 203B.121, § 204C.20). Coverage equals counties that actually produced files — not 87 by assumption. A denial is a row, not a zero.

Pay or inspect Crow Wing and Cottonwood. Refile Hennepin as three separate asks if September 4 closed the tickets. Keep the SOS history map. Train the next requester. Do not return slurs. Do not invent a write-in into a process we have spent months documenting as unfit to count a protest.

God sees the work. Christ is King.
Stay on board with the truth. Teach it.

Phillip C. Parrish
Producer and host, Freedom Talk with Phil
Phillip C. Parrish Intelligence Cell / Operation Shadow Hunt

phillip@parrish4mn.com
Heidi Wanty: heidi@parrish4mn.com
(612) 460-1717
parrish4mn.com
X: @phillipcparrish · @parrish4mn

Source pack — duplicate the research

Prior briefs on this site

Statutes (Revisor)

Official data and certificates

County and press records cited

County denial letters and the EVS 6.5.1.1 certification PDF should be uploaded as media attachments on this post so readers can open the same pages.