Re: Election Day
Rep. Kahn mentioned problems at her precinct: > And all of this had to be done with judges from two different parties for each ballot. Again in one precinct there was only one republican judge making a balanced work load impossible. = [KB] On 3/24/99, I posted to this list about the restriction on election judge eligibility.* According to both the City of Minneapolis and the Secretary of State, a person must represent one of Minnesota's major political parties. Until Tuesday's result, this meant a person had to swear allegiance to the DFL, GOP, I.P., or Constitution Party. Now the C.P. has been replaced by the Green Party as a "major". Why exclude anyone who's willing and otherwise eligible? I've corresponded with the SoS's office about the restriction. One answer I got included the statement that they were having no problems recruiting election judges. Minnesota's partisan restriction on election judge eligibility needs to be changed. Perhaps Rep. Kahn would be willing to introduce remedial legislation that would enable any citizen eligible to vote to become an election judge. She could partially rebut the SoS's statement by pointing out that her precinct had a shortage. --Ken Bearman, King Field 11-1, 60B, HC 3, CD5 * My post is archived at http://www.egroups.com/message/mpls-issues/604 .
Re: Minneapolis results
Don Jorovsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >Let's talk about the election results in the city, now that the tallies are all in. If we add them up, we see that the Gore-Lieberman ticket received 115,566 votes for a total of 67 percent; Bush-Cheney received 38,865 for 22.5 percent, and Nader-LaDuke received 18,180 for 10.5 percent. > >What does this mean in terms of what Minneapolitans want? There are many possible interpretations, but I'll start with a controversial one just to get the ball rolling (and to get people yelling at me): Nader was overplayed. Very often when reading this list, one could get the impression that Nader was the number one choice in Mpls, but his 10.5 percent showing was in the end very weak, as voters came to their senses and exercised good judgment. = [KB] This is short-sighted, condescending, and misses many points that the DFL would like ignored. There are significant groups of citizens who are hungry for candidates (and parties) who represent their views. But the way we elect our council members and other office holders conveniently shuts a lot of citizens out of representation in the governing process. 10.5% of the votes represents more than a full Council seat. If we Minneapolitans could vote for Council in a proportional representation election, Greens all over the city could demonstrate whether they're "weak". So could IP supporters or Libertarians ... or even Republicans! Or do those 22.5% represent another "weak" showing who deserve only scorn but nobody in the governing? The DFL routinely gets 67% of the votes citywide. Currently 12 of the 13 council members are DFLers ... 92.3%. This kind of unrepresentativeness needs to be corrected. -- Ken Bearman, King Field 11-1, 60B, HC 3, CD5
Re: New Ballpark Inc. website
The List Manager forwarded a message from Peter Musty that said, in part:
>
>There is a mayor appointed committee of 17 Minneapolis citizens reviewing
the idea of a privately funded urban ballpark in Minneapolis.
=
[KB] Given this process ("mayor appointed"), why shouldn't we worry that
Minneapolis's politicians' urge to get public funding into a stadium project
(or two) is alive and well?
If private funders are so hot to trot toward new stadia, let them. When
they need zoning or other issues dealt with, let them come to the proper
agencies and ask them to consider the plans and requests. But quit wasting
public resources on it: mayor's time, mayor's staff time, council members'
time, and so on and on. What else are the politicos doing in this besides
appointing committees?
--Ken Bearman, King Field neighborhood
11-1, SD 60, HC 3
P.S.--Doré, please change your mind!
Re: Library Referendum
Jan Del Calzo wrote: >It was also enlightening to read about the shift of money to the Park Board by the City so that the Park Board would not do a referendum too. That one might have run into problems with the voters as well. Is there a pattern here - the City Council members are an easier sell than the general populace and are bigger spenders than the rest of the people? > >This whole discussion also points out to me that the special purpose boards really may have outlived their usefulness. > [KB] Am I missing something? It looks like the City Council is the group that's outlived its usefulness. -- Please explain further. Jan continued: >I would really like to see figures on what savings might accrue if there were no Park or Library Boards. > [KB] It may be unintentional, but this disconnection of costs from services is just like the "Overtaxed ... overtaxed" mantra we see and hear way too much. Cutting the Boards merely to save money without balancing against what's lost is not good governance. _Would_ we lose little or nothing? --Ken Bearman, King Field 11-1, County 3,
Re: Kathleen Mottl
[EMAIL PROTECTED] replied to David Brauer: >Kathy Mottl is a prosecutor in Wright County and is very well regarded, both by prosecutors and by the defense attorneys. Minnesota Women Lawyers endorsed her. > >MWL did not endorse her opponent, Judge Patricia Kerasov, 6 years ago and did not endorse her this year. You can check out the endorsement criteria at > >Janet Gendler >Linden Hills = [KB] One can also find information about judicial candidates in contested elections (only 10, from Supreme Court through all District Court races) in the "Minnesota Lawyer" web site at http://www.minnlawyer.com/election_2000/election2000.htm . I found it in the course of looking for the MN State Bar Association's bylaws because I heard that the MSBA has adopted preference voting -- a form of proportional representation also used to elect the city council and school board in Cambridge MA -- for its elections. ~~~ Proportional Representation elections: Majority rule with minority representation. PR Library: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/polit/damy/prlib.htm == == o == == o == == o == == o == == o == == --Ken Bearman, Minneapolis => E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <= FairVote Minnesota: http://www2.bitstream.net/~gabeo/fvhome.html == == o == == o == == o == == o == == o == == "U.S. citizens would never accept an economic system that allowed us to buy cars from only two companies, or to choose from only two airlines. Why, then, should we have to settle for just two options in politics?" -The Center for Voting & Democracy -- http://www.fairvote.org ~~~
