Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglass, Publisher of the Pope County Tribune

Minnesota voters can vote early with an absentee ballot at your local elections office, starting this Friday Sept. 20. Pope County offers in-person absentee voting at the elections office, which is the Auditor/Treasurer’s Office in the Pope County Courthouse at 130 E. Minnesota Avenue in Glenwood.

Those who are not registered to vote, can do so in person at the Auditor Treasurer’s Office but must show  proof of residence.

The Pope County Auditor/Treasurer’s  office is the official voting location for Pope County for early or absentee voting  and it is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.  The office will also be open for voters until 7 p.m. on October 29 and from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 26, Saturday, Nov. 2 and on Sunday, Nov. 3.

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I was reading an Associated Press report the other day that caught my eye– The MyPillow guy was in the news again.

The Associated Press reported last week that package delivery company DHL is suing MyPillow, alleging the company synonymous with its founder, chief pitchman and election denier Mike Lindell owes nearly $800,000 for unpaid bills.

The lawsuit is the latest legal dispute to emerge against MyPillow and Lindell, a prominent supporter of Donald Trump who has helped amplify the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

In this lawsuit, filed in Hennepin County District Court in Minneapolis on Monday, the DHL eCommerce unit alleges that MyPillow is in violation of a contract that requires the Minnesota-based company to pay for all parcel delivery services within 15 days of being billed. The lawsuit says they reached a settlement in May 2023 that required MyPillow to pay $775,000 in 24 monthly installments starting in April of this year.

But the lawsuit alleges that MyPillow has made only partial payments on that settlement, totaling $64,583.34, with the last one received on June 6. DHL says it notified MyPillow that it was in default on July 2. The lawsuit seeks $799,925.59, plus interest and attorney fees.

Lindell told The Associated Press on Thursday that he didn’t know what the lawsuit was about, but that his company decided to stop using DHL over a year ago in a dispute over shipments that he said was DHL’s fault.

Lawsuits and billing disputes are nothing new for the “MyPillow Guy.” He’s being sued for defamation by two voting machine companies. Lawyers who were originally defending him in those cases quit over unpaid bills.

A credit crunch last year disrupted cash flow at MyPillow after it lost Fox News as one of its major advertising platforms and was dropped by several national retailers. A judge in February affirmed a $5 million arbitration award to a software engineer who successfully challenged data that Lindell said proved that China interfered in the 2020 election.