Biography
Background & current role
MyPillow founder, longtime Donald Trump ally and prominent advocate for replacing electronic election systems with hand-counted paper ballots. Lindell ran for the 2026 Republican nomination for governor of Minnesota with Phillip Parrish and finished second to Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth. FactFlag places him in a separate Outside Allies & Political Influencers group so his political proximity to Trump is visible without implying that he holds a White House or administration position.
Current record notes: {'id': 'lindell-recount-deadline-lawsuit-status-2026-08-27', 'date': '2026-08-27', 'display_date': 'August 25–27, 2026', 'subjects': ['elections-voting', 'ethics-legal'], 'summary': 'After withholding the $825,000 payment required for a candidate-funded recount by Minnesota’s August 24 deadline, Mike Lindell said he would pursue legal action against Secretary of State Steve Simon over the recount rules and deadline. Reporting through August 27 indicates the ordinary discretionary recount did not begin; Lindell is seeking a court route instead.'} {'id': 'lindell-recount-scope-payment-court-2026-08-25', 'date': '2026-08-25', 'display_date': 'August 24–25, 2026', 'subjects': ['elections-voting', 'ethics-legal'], 'summary': 'Lindell did not submit the $825,000 recount payment by Minnesota’s August 24 deadline. His campaign said the money was ready but withheld because the state’s contingent plan would separately tally only Lindell and Lisa Demuth, grouping other ballots rather than separately recounting every Republican gubernatorial candidate and the DFL gubernatorial primary. The campaign asked for emergency court relief and a deadline waiver. The Secretary of State says the August 18 plan follows state law and recount rules. As of the morning of August 25, no recount had started and no court ruling resolving the dispute was publicly reported.'}
FactFlag treats this page as a maintained public-record profile. Specific disputed factual claims are evaluated separately, with the original statement, primary evidence, contextual reporting and any material rebuttal shown together.
Role history & transitions
Documented current/future role notes
- After withholding the $825,000 payment required for a candidate-funded recount by Minnesota’s August 24 deadline, Mike Lindell said he would pursue legal action against Secretary of State Steve Simon over the recount rules and deadline. Reporting through August 27 indicates the ordinary discretionary recount did not begin; Lindell is seeking a court route instead.
- Lindell did not submit the $825,000 recount payment by Minnesota’s August 24 deadline. His campaign said the money was ready but withheld because the state’s contingent plan would separately tally only Lindell and Lisa Demuth, grouping other ballots rather than separately recounting every Republican gubernatorial candidate and the DFL gubernatorial primary. The campaign asked for emergency court relief and a deadline waiver. The Secretary of State says the August 18 plan follows state law and recount rules. As of the morning of August 25, no recount had started and no court ruling resolving the dispute was publicly reported.
- Lindell announced that he intended to pay for a statewide hand recount of Minnesota’s Republican gubernatorial primary. Minnesota permits a losing candidate outside the publicly funded threshold to request a discretionary recount at the candidate’s expense. The Secretary of State estimated the full recount at about $825,000 and set August 24 as the request/payment deadline; Lindell later withheld that payment while contesting the state’s recount scope in court.
- Published statewide Republican gubernatorial primary totals show Lisa Demuth with 179,683 votes (43.44%) and Mike Lindell with 134,282 (32.47%), a 45,401-vote margin. Lindell did not win the Republican nomination.
- Donald Trump endorsed Lindell in the Minnesota Republican gubernatorial primary. The endorsement documents Lindell's political relationship with Trump but did not create any White House or federal government role.
Claims & evidence
Evidence tracker
August 25–27, 2026 · Minnesota GOP primary recount / court challenge
A statewide hand recount of Lindell’s Minnesota GOP primary loss is now underway
NOT UNDERWAY — DEADLINE MISSED; LAWSUIT ANNOUNCED
92% evidence gapWELL SUPPORTED
NOT SUPPORTEDWhat is being said
Lindell continues to describe his effort as a recount challenge and says he will sue Minnesota election officials over the rules governing the candidate-funded recount.
What the record shows
Minnesota’s discretionary recount process required the request and payment by the August 24 deadline. Lindell withheld the estimated $825,000 payment while disputing the state’s recount scope. Subsequent reporting says he missed the recount-request deadline and moved toward litigation rather than a live statewide hand recount.
Response / rebuttal
The dispute may still produce court proceedings, and a court could address the requested relief. But a legal challenge is not the same thing as an active statewide recount. The current factual status is that the ordinary candidate-funded recount did not start by the deadline.
Limits / uncertainty: FactFlag is not predicting how any lawsuit will be resolved. This status should be updated if a court accepts the case, grants emergency relief, orders a recount, or otherwise changes the procedural posture.
August 24–25, 2026 · Minnesota GOP primary recount / legal procedure
The Minnesota Secretary of State unlawfully narrowed Lindell’s recount by tallying only Lindell and Demuth separately
LEGAL SCOPE DISPUTE — NO COURT RULING YET
46% evidence gapWELL SUPPORTED
NOT SUPPORTED What is being said
Lindell’s August 24 campaign statement says the Secretary of State made an unlawful “bait and switch” by planning to separately tally only Mike Lindell and Lisa Demuth rather than every Republican gubernatorial candidate and the DFL gubernatorial primary. The campaign says the statutory phrase “number of votes validly cast for the office” requires every gubernatorial candidate’s votes to be individually recounted. It said the $825,000 wire was ready, withheld payment, asked the state to waive the deadline and announced immediate legal action.
What the record shows
Minnesota Statutes §204C.35, subd. 3 does say a recount is limited to determining the number of votes validly cast for the office or question being recounted. But the state’s binding recount rule, Minn. R. 8235.0800, is more specific about the mechanics: officials sort ballots into one pile for each candidate who is “the subject of the recount” and one pile for all other ballots, expressly including votes for other candidates, overvotes and undervotes. The Secretary of State’s public recount guidance uses the same candidate-specific-plus-“all other” structure. That means ballots can still be physically reviewed without separately reporting a new tally for every other candidate. Minnesota’s primary-counting statute also treats partisan primary votes by party. The Secretary of State says the contingent plan was approved by the State Canvassing Board on August 18, follows state law and administrative rules, and is consistent with longstanding recount practice.
Response / rebuttal
Lindell has a textual argument based on the broad “votes validly cast for the office” language, while the state has direct administrative-rule language supporting separate piles for the candidates who are actually subjects of the recount plus one “all other ballots” pile. A court, not FactFlag, would resolve whether the state’s plan lawfully applies those provisions in this primary. Procedurally, the official election calendar placed the discretionary-recount window from August 18 through August 24 and the Secretary of State says a request must be accompanied by funds. Lindell withheld the $825,000 payment and sought emergency relief, so the ordinary recount process did not start by the deadline. State law also says a discretionary primary recount does not delay delivery of the nomination notice to the winning candidate.
Limits / uncertainty: This is a fast-moving legal dispute. As of approximately 8:00 a.m. CDT on August 25, FactFlag found the campaign announcement and multiple Minnesota news reports describing emergency court action, but no publicly accessible court order resolving the requested deadline waiver or the recount scope. The legal-status portion of this record should be updated as soon as a filed complaint, temporary restraining order, hearing order or merits ruling becomes available.
August 19, 2026 · Minnesota 2026 Republican gubernatorial primary
Election-night reporting patterns prove the Minnesota GOP primary had 'computer manipulation'
UNSUBSTANTIATED — RECOUNT NOT STARTED; COURT DISPUTE PENDING
88% evidence gapWELL SUPPORTED
NOT SUPPORTED What is being said
Lindell says election-night reporting data showed more than 55 instances of vote totals moving backward, unusually synchronized movement among the seven Republican gubernatorial candidates, and other anomalies. He told Northern News Now that the pattern was either computer malfunction or computer manipulation and later said there was computer manipulation that could not happen by hand. His recount site currently headlines the primary as showing 'Computer Manipulation.'
What the record shows
The reported election-night patterns are reasons someone may choose to audit the reporting pipeline, but they do not by themselves establish that paper ballots or certified tabulator totals were altered. Minnesota voters cast paper ballots that can be manually reviewed. Published totals show Demuth ahead of Lindell by 45,401 votes. Lindell announced a candidate-funded hand recount, but on August 24 his campaign withheld the required $825,000 payment over a dispute about which candidates would be separately tallied. As of the morning of August 25, no statewide hand recount had begun and there was still no official finding that computer manipulation changed the paper ballots or the outcome.
Response / rebuttal
Minnesota law provides a discretionary recount route when a candidate pays the cost, but Lindell’s effort is now in a procedural dispute: his campaign wants all gubernatorial candidates individually tallied, while the Secretary of State’s plan and recount rules use separate piles for the candidates who are subjects of the recount and one pile for all other ballots. Lindell has sought court intervention. If a recount is ultimately ordered, its precinct-level results can be compared with certified totals before drawing conclusions about tabulation accuracy.
Limits / uncertainty: The announced hand recount did not begin before the August 24 payment deadline because Lindell withheld the required funds while seeking court relief. This rating addresses the claim that the reporting patterns already prove manipulation; it does not prejudge any later recount or court finding.
August 5, 2026 · Minnesota sample ballots / tabulator security
Sample ballots posted by 15 Minnesota counties created a ballot-counting security scandal
TECHNICAL CONCERN IDENTIFIED — FRAUD INFERENCE NOT ESTABLISHED
58% evidence gapWELL SUPPORTED
NOT SUPPORTED What is being said
LindellTV promoted claims from election-integrity investigator Rick Weible and attorney Matt Benda that sample-ballot PDFs from 15 Minnesota counties retained tabulator timing marks and could potentially be printed and processed by tabulators. The report characterized this as a major security vulnerability and said the files should be pulled or altered.
What the record shows
The report identifies a concrete technical question worth testing: whether a publicly downloadable sample can be physically accepted by a particular scanner. But scanner acceptance is not the same as a fraudulent ballot becoming a counted legal vote. Minnesota precinct procedures require election judges to reconcile the number of ballots with the number of voters, and excess ballots trigger specific statutory procedures. The cited LindellTV report does not establish that a printed sample ballot was actually introduced into the August 11 election, counted, or changed any result.
Response / rebuttal
A prudent election-security response can include removing machine-readable features from public examples and testing scanners against unofficial documents. That preventative argument is stronger than the separate assertion that the existence of the files demonstrates actual election fraud.
Limits / uncertainty: This review does not independently bench-test every Minnesota tabulator or every PDF identified by Weible and Benda. If a county or state technical report documents scanner behavior, that record should be added. The current evidence supports a security-design concern, not a finding of fraudulent votes.
August 11, 2026 · Minnesota voter identification / registration
Minnesota voting uses 'no ID whatsoever,' implying there are no meaningful identity or residency checks
PARTLY TRUE — IMPORTANT CONTEXT MISSING
38% evidence gapWELL SUPPORTED
NOT SUPPORTED What is being said
After voting in the Republican primary, Lindell said, 'No ID whatsoever. You stick the paper into the machine and it's gone,' and described the process as worse than he expected. The literal observation that an already registered Minnesota voter may vote without presenting photo ID is consistent with state rules; the broader implication that Minnesota has no identity/residency controls is not.
What the record shows
Minnesota does not require a current and active registered voter to show identification at the polling place. The voter signs in against the precinct voter list. A person who needs to register or update registration on Election Day must establish residence through approved documentation or another authorized method, including vouching under oath by a registered voter from the precinct. Election-day registrations are subsequently entered into the statewide voter registration system and subject to verification procedures.
Response / rebuttal
Critics can reasonably debate whether Minnesota should require photo ID for every voter. That is a policy argument. The narrower factual description should distinguish 'no photo ID required for an already active registrant' from 'no identity, registration or residency controls.'
Limits / uncertainty: This rating does not measure whether Minnesota's rules are the best policy or compare their security with every other state's rules. It addresses the factual implication created by the phrase 'no ID whatsoever' in the context of the full voting system.
July 2026 · 2020 election / voting-machine claims
The Election Crime Bureau's hundreds of findings establish that electronic voting systems stole or manipulated the 2020 election
OVERALL CONCLUSION NOT SUPPORTED BY THE COURT / OFFICIAL RECORD
94% evidence gapWELL SUPPORTED
NOT SUPPORTED What is being said
Lindell and the Election Crime Bureau are again promoting a large 2020-election dossier, advertising hundreds of findings and thousands of citations as evidence of systemic election manipulation. Lindell continues to argue that electronic voting systems must be removed and that the 2020 presidential result was corrupted by machine-related fraud.
What the record shows
A large number of citations is not itself proof that the report's ultimate causal conclusion follows from them. The compilation contains a mixture of real documents, disputed interpretations, security concerns and inferential claims. In Smartmatic's federal defamation case against Lindell, a judge ruled that the actionable Smartmatic-related 2020 statements before the court were false; independent reporting on that ruling noted the absence of evidence that Smartmatic equipment rigged the 2020 presidential result. Recent declassified reporting about Venezuelan election manipulation also does not establish that U.S. voting equipment changed the 2020 presidential outcome.
Response / rebuttal
The strongest way to evaluate the Election Crime Bureau material is claim-by-claim, rather than treating the existence of 800-plus pages or thousands of citations as proof of the headline conclusion. Documented procedural weaknesses or theoretical vulnerabilities should remain visible even when they do not establish a stolen-election conclusion.
Limits / uncertainty: This card does not declare every item in the Election Crime Bureau collection false. It rates the broad conclusion that the compilation establishes machine-driven theft/manipulation of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Individual findings can be added as separate records when they are specific enough to test against primary evidence.
