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Be the Change You Seek

Preface to the new version of [S]elections in Minnesota and an invitation to share your story

Erik van Mechelen

Dec 30, 2022 — 9 min read

Water droplets, above the great plains, below the heavens

Preface - Water Flows Downhill (Almost Always)

“Be the change you seek.”

—Andrei Merlescu, inventor of Project Apario (https://projectapario.com), a biblical table flip on the idea of the mainstream media allowing anyone anywhere to contribute open source documents to a worldwide truth repository where researchers may StumbleInto™ or perform advanced searches on declassified records (DECLAS) and Freedom of Information Act documents (FOIA)

“From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books.”

—George Orwell, author of novles, 1984 and Animal Fram, and a volume of essays, Facing Unpleasant Facts

"Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson describes where change starts. Look into your own eyes. What do you see? What happens if you were to have a conversation with yourself? With God?

That is in part how this book took shape.

Half a year ago in May 2022 I began the first draft of [S]elections in Minnesota: An Introduction to How Machines Controlled 2020 and Why We Must Return to Hand Counting Paper Ballots. The book was published digitally a few weeks later in June 2022, with the paperback version debuting on June 27, 2022.

However, only months before I knew very little about election law, election process, and the electronic voting system. All which it turns out work cleverly in tandem to allow the subversion of the sacred elective franchise.

It was only a year prior when, after realizing that things would not resolve themselves on their own, and after Project Veritas correctly passed on my application, that I found myself in an online group searching for a way to audit Minnesota's election. The last 18 months I've done little else apart from the research, studying, and activity which is summarized briefly in the pages that follow. Most of all, it has been a spiritual journey.

After a childhood and youth spent in Texas, Gabon, Louisiana, Indonesia, Texas again, and finally China, and after four years in Northfield, Minnesota, the last 12 years brought me to three separate parts of the Waterfall City, Minneapolis. Never more than a few minutes from waterways, walking, jogging, and biking the lakes and streams became a pleasurable and contemplative hobby. During this activity, time is occasionally taken to sit quietly. If one watches the water a simple truth may be learned: water always flows downhill. But in Minnesota's elections, it has been shown to do the opposite: water mysteriously flows uphill. Since this cannot occur naturally (except during cataclysmic events producing tsunamis), it begs the question: How is this accomplished?

In a word: engineering. This book will show you step by step how elections in this state are designed and manufactured, how our votes are calculated, not counted, and what everyone can do on a weekly basis in their home county, city, and township to educate their neighbors and election administrators to eventually restore reliable trust in our elections through transparency and accountability.

In a web archive of Chan Thomas's "Adam and Eve Story", the author references Prof. Frank C. Hibben who in his book, "The Lost Americans" said

"Any good solution to a consuming mystery must answer all the facts" about "what caused the death of forty million animals" whose "bones lie bleaching in the sands of Florida and in the gravels of New Jersey" or whose remains "weather out of the dry terraces of Texas and protrude from the sticky ooze of the tar pits off Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles" and why "the bodies of the victims are everywhere."

Instead of forty million animals, the search began state by state, county by county, in November 2020 for who cast the logic defying forty million votes which doubled one candidate’s likely legitimate vote tally and which allowed the eighty million mark to be surpassed in the 2020 general election. Americans from coast to coast and from the upper Midwest to the deep south entered into a nationwide investigation into how digital voter rolls are managed and manipulated, how full stop vote shops like Runbeck in Pheonix print and mail ballots, how the election cartel incentivizes and controls vote harvesting operations, and how tabulators can systematically malfunction from Maricopa to Minneapolis suppressing voters.

Through public data requests and varying levels of inquiry, it has emerged that unchecked voter rolls combined with mail ballots lacking legitimate and required chain of custody can overwhelm even landslide levels of in-person voting. If that fails because voters come out in droves for an undesirable candidate (from the establishment's perspective), then further voter suppression or digital tricks and "glitches" can be performed—seeing as the entire system can be monitored through such methods as Albert censors. If anyone asks for public election data—and it is public, for instance see December 2022 ruling in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania on cast vote records—the authorities can do their best to avoid disclosing data.

Elections comprise several domains of knowledge including but not limited to information theory, electronic systems, and black letter law, which is perhaps why few are able to call themselves experts. (Beware those who do.) I do not call or view myself an expert, but I believe I have met some who are, even though even they do not make a habit of presenting themselves as such. They include: Rick Weible, Susan Shogren Smith, Jeffrey O'Donnell, Draza Smith, Patrick Colbeck, Col. Shawn Smith, Mark Cook, David Clements, and Erin Clements. Indeed, I've had the chance to learn through our interactions, observed presentations, and by their example. The conduct of these men and women is in such a way that no large issue can be taken. Despite their likely unknown influence on my study, it is an aim to present the following work in my own style, but also in a manner which defends against simple attacks. In Robert A. Caro's Working he describes an early boss's advice to "turn every page." That is simply not possible for one writer to do on this subject, and yet an effort must be taken; not withstanding unturned stones, if this work is presented very well, any attacks will only amplify the message and hasten its spread to those seeking a survey of and starting point in the elections landscape.

Much of what I've studied, witnessed, and ultimately learned was unexpected. Often a position of humility was taken (or impressed upon me). The sooner expectations could be set aside or let go of completely, the sooner and smoother came the learning.

Someone I view as a mentor, Rick Weible, said he set up the website, MidwestSwampWatch.com, hoping to cover much more than election data, process, and accountability. A few years later, though, striving for public and transparent elections remains the primary focus.

A second mentor, Nathan, taught me the importance of patient persistence, part of the true definition of meek. However long it takes, and whatever shape the road may be, I intend to walk it.

A third mentor, Andrei, said, "Be the change you seek," which speaks for itself.

With love, hope, and gratitude,

Erik van Mechelen

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Dec 29, 2022

Your help needed to have stories written and shared

Many of you have followed and shared this blog in 2022 where about 90 posts were made on election and information integrity. I’m humbled and thankful for your readership and support.

However most of you did not know that since May 2022 all major paid client writing work was put aside giving space to learn as much as I could about elections in Minnesota and to run for MN Secretary of State to further raise awareness on those findings.

Having previously coached college athletes, a combination of practicality and inspiration have led me to try my hand at fitness coaching with an audition for a local gym mid January 2023.

Despite that potential, it remains a calling to help others shape and share their stories.

And now the Spirit is guiding me to ask for your help as I return to consistent paid work.

Since leaving a corporate job in one of Target’s information technology departments to chart a different course days before my 27th birthday in September 2014, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to work with over 100 authors on various aspects of their writing, from fiction and nonfiction books to article series, from outlining and writing all the way through to publication and marketing.

We are living through amazing times and the stories we document now will help to teach others what was learned as well as to make clear intentions as we set out into new territory.

Here are just a few prior experiences with a variety of authors and topics with meaningful outcomes:

cowriter and coach to a 90-year-old traveling doctor who served in the Pacific during the Korean War leaving an autobiography for his family [in-person conversations, outlining, transcribing, writing, editing]
ghostwritten book with CEO of well known firm on future of marketing now that “advertising is dead” (Wall Street Journal Bestseller) [video calls, ghostwriting, research]
wrote collaboratively with young entrepreneur on how he built a direct-to-consumer peanut butter company [video calls, ghostwriting]
pieced together interview transcripts and helped Savannah Bananas CEO solidify the title for his book, Fans First: Change the Game, Break the Rules & Create an Unforgettable Experience [video calls, transcription, editing, title workshop]
ghostwritten book on the garage gym revolution’s contribution to happier, healthier, and stronger people [video calls, ghostwriting]
ghostwritten guide to cloud computing modernization for data insights [video calls, ghostwriting]
contributions to article on education for two former governors (USA Today) [ghostwriting]
a year of LinkedIn posts for a thought leader in future of ed-tech [weekly calls, ghostwriting]
revised version of Yu-kai Chou’s book, Actionable Gamification: Beyond Points, Badges, and Leaderboards (over 100k copies sold) for German publisher submission and 100 posts on applied gamification [editing]
story snippets supporting a novella written by award winning fantasy writer for major video game franchise [creative writing]
helped 90 authors choose the title and subtitle to best invite their preferred readers into the experience of their book [reading manuscripts, video calls, marketing]
edited book introducing the Bible to newcomers [editing]
edited science fiction novel about the pitfalls of genetically modified humans and their role in World War III [editing]
two self-published novels, the first on remembering one’s past to escape mind enslavement, the second on a stranger finding a role and bringing coherence to a destabilized underground domain [writing, editing, publishing]
a self-published book synthesizing study, research, and local activity toward trustworthy elections [writing, editing, publishing]

Do you know someone who has a story they are ready to tell right now?

The invitation is to start by working with 1-3 authors in Spring 2023.

Please email writer@hey.com to setup a free consultation.

On the 60-minute call you and I will discuss:

your story
your objective, and
what you need help with, no matter what stage of the process, from outlining to writing to editing to publishing

If the first phone or video call goes well, there will be another 60-minute followup (in person if possible) to align on the above before agreeing to a detailed plan.

Unlike some other writing and editing services, you’ll have my full and personal attention—you’re not alone—during our work together as well as access if needed to trusted sources of editing, interior design, and cover design that go above and beyond my strongest skillsets in helping you locate your story, shape it, write it, and take your project from idea to publication. Think of me as your Samwise Gamgee with a few other merry hobbits at your service, whether to tend the garden or embark on a long journey on foot to the heart of Mordor—and back. No matter what I will express love toward you and your work, seeking the highest good. Your story is a chance to make a change, to make a difference, to make something right. Perhaps the best invitation I can offer is that by the end, you almost certainly won’t be the same as when you set out.