The city of Minneapolis is dealing with new allegations against a software manager whose company manufactures the system the city uses to manage and program poll workers.
Authorities arrested Eugene Yu, CEO of Michigan-based Konnech Inc., this weekalleging that Konnech breached its contract with LA County in California to securely store election worker information on servers in the United States.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said the information was instead held on servers in China, according to National Public Radio. Yu was arrested on suspicion of stealing personal identification information.
In a statement Friday, Minneapolis Elections and Voter Services has acknowledged that Konnech Inc. is the manufacturer of the PollChief Election Worker Management System, which the city uses.
“The city takes these accusations seriously and we are reviewing the impact, if any, on Minneapolis poll worker data,” the city said. “At this point, the city has no reason to believe that its election officials’ data is involved.”
“It is important to note that the PollChief software is not used in the voting process or in the counting of votes,” the statement continued. “A separate, independent system is used for ballot tabulation which is provided by a different vendor.”
Further updates are expected from the city ahead of the upcoming Nov. 8 general election.
