Mike Lindell has spent years telling America the election system is rigged and riddled with fraud. He made "election integrity" his whole identity. So here's a fact worth sitting with: Mike Lindell — the MyPillow founder now running for governor of Minnesota — wasn't even registered to vote there until reporters asked.

Not registered in the state he wants to run

As The Independent reported, Lindell had no active voter registration in Minnesota when the Star Tribune checked in mid-July 2026. His active registration was in Texas, where he moved in 2024 and, he says, voted. The story was first reported by the Star Tribune — which noted Lindell told the paper he didn't even know whether he was registered in the state he wants to govern.

Lindell says it's no big deal. "I'm a resident for over a year and a half, back in Minnesota. I'm qualified to run for governor. You can register the same day you vote in Minnesota," he said, adding, "I plan on registering and voting for myself."

He's technically right that Minnesota lets you register on Election Day, and that you don't have to be registered to run. But that's exactly the point.

Update: Lindell registered to vote on Monday, July 20 — the day this post was published — and then blamed the state, saying Minnesota's "automatic" voter registration should have signed him up when he got a driver's license. "Either it was done wrong at the Secretary of State's office or at the DMV or something," he told the Star Tribune. The Secretary of State's office stood by its records.

The hypocrisy is the story

Think about who is saying this.

This is the man who told CNBC he had spent $25 million of his own money promoting claims that the 2020 election was stolen, who has called for strict scrutiny of voter rolls, and who says the whole system can't be trusted. He pushed those false claims so aggressively that he became one of the most recognizable faces of the 2020 election lie.

And this same man couldn't be bothered to make sure he was registered to vote in his own home state — while asking to be its governor. The guy who wants to tighten everyone else's voting rules was casually planning to register at the polls on the same day he voted — until the story broke.

A carpetbagger, too

There's another layer here. Lindell was born and raised in Minnesota, then packed up and moved to Texas in 2024. He says he voted there. Now he's back, claiming residency just long enough to run for the top job in a state he left.

So the pitch to Minnesota voters is: elect a man who moved away, didn't register to vote here until reporters asked, and built his fame spreading falsehoods about the very elections he now wants to oversee.

What he'd actually do

Lindell's carpetbagging and registration mess would be almost funny if his agenda weren't so serious. His campaign platform promised to cut income, business, and sales taxes — the revenue that funds Minnesota's schools and health care. His network, LindellTV, campaigns against the Affordable Care Act, even though more than 151,000 Minnesotans signed up for ACA marketplace plans for 2025. And Minnesota law protects abortion rights — something Lindell said he would "absolutely" try to change.

A man who didn't bother to register to vote in Minnesota until reporters asked is asking for the power to reshape it. Minnesotans deserve better than a self-styled "election integrity" crusader who can't manage his own.

Source

• "Mike Lindell isn’t registered to vote in Minnesota where he is running for governor," The Independent, July 20, 2026.
• "Mike Lindell, now registered to vote, blames state for report that he was not," Minnesota Star Tribune, July 22, 2026.