Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/category/elections/page/16/)
Wow, deputies endorse the new candidate for Hennepin Sheriff, Eddie Frizell, not the incumbent Rich Stanek, by a vote of 170 to 14 votes. There must be some serious reasons because I am sure that endorsing against one’s current boss is a risk. An announcement is expected out soon. Continue Reading
Growing up, Nelson Inz wasn’t a great student. Because of his father’s Huntington’s disease, which affects impulse control, Inz experienced an abusive household at a young age, which inhibited his schooling.When he became a teacher, he realized that when kids struggle outside of school, they need extra help getting up to grade level in reading or staying engaged because of outside factors. Inz hopes to bring that personal experience and knowledge to his campaign, running for Minneapolis school board in District 5 this year.“That’s the ethic that I’d like to bring to the school board,” said Inz. “No matter who the kids are, you have to believe you can make a difference through the public schools. I believe the schools themselves can make a difference and make for better communities that are more just.”Inz believes in the power of public schools to be an instrument of social change, he said, which is why he became a teacher in the first place. Continue Reading
Minnesotans can now vote from the comfort of their homes.On June 27, the state passed a new law that allows any resident to request an absentee ballot to vote in the Aug.12 primary and future elections. Previously, absentee voters had to establish that they fell within specific categories of being physically unable to get to their polling place. But the new law removes such restrictions and allows voters to register online at the Secretary of State’s website.The change groups Minnesota with several other states, which already offer “no excuse” absentee voting. Oregon and Washington are completely mail-in voting, with limited accommodations made for in-person voting. Thirty-three states also allow for early voting, which Minnesota does not.On July 12 we headed to the Avenue Eatery on West Broadway and Emerson Ave. Continue Reading
Brian Rice, we’re waiting. Not for evidence. We waited in vain for that. We’re waiting now for your apology. Continue Reading
There hasn’t been a competitive Republican gubernatorial primary in decades, since the Carlson- Quist battle pitted the incumbent against a more conservative endorsed candidate in the 1990s. Continue Reading
More than a hundred absentee voters who registered at the address of a mailbox center in Cedar-Riverside will have to re-register under their home addresses — a decision that follows a stir in the Somali community regarding legal voting practices.At an administrative hearing on Thursday, the Hennepin County Attorney’s office announced that the case of 141 improperly registered voters was not an intentional or organized effort, dismissing allegations of voter fraud.The hearing came about two weeks after the attorney’s office was prompted to investigate the incident by a petition filed by a lawyer for Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis.Kahn is facing Somali challenger Mohamud Noor for re-election this November to continue her 42-year career as the State Representative for House District 60B, the seat that represents the West Bank, the University of Minnesota and other Minneapolis neighborhoods.In a petition filed June 27, Brian Rice, Kahn’s attorney, said more than 140 absentee voters had registered 419 Cedar Avenue South as their residential address — what is actually a commercial space lacking apartments and dominated by Somali shops and money wiring services. Under Minnesota law, voters must register at their home address or face five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.“Voters in Minnesota must vote where they live or reside,” Rice said. “The definition of residence is as simple as where your head hits your pillow at night.”At the hearing, Dan Rogan, a lawyer for the Hennepin County Attorney’s office, said his office found that there are no residents living at the address on Cedar Avenue, where some voters have registered dating as far back as 2008. And while about 70 people packed an auditorium at the Hennepin County Government Center for the discussion, none of the voters implicated in the case testified that they indeed lived there.Their votes have been invalidated and their registrations cancelled, said Hennepin County Auditor Mark Chapin at the hearing. He said they must now register at their home address and that his office will release the findings of its investigation early next week.Omar Jamal, a Somali advocate, said the allegations in Rice’s petition has shaken the Somali community in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, and that Kahn’s campaign owes an apology to the Somali community for “bullying the voters.”“This allegation has created a tremendous fear,” Jamal said during the hearing. Continue Reading
Reading around in Greater Minnesota newspapers, Bluestem paused at this item in Sauk Centre Herald staff writer Randy Olson’s profile of Dean Simpson, Lt. Governor candidate paying attention to rural Minnesota: Continue Reading
Fifty years after the Freedom Summer work to defend Voting Rights, and 49 years after the passage fo the Voting Rights Act, threats to voting are emerging across the country. An interfaith group, including veterans of the 1960s civil rights struggle, convened June 22 at Shiloh Temple International Ministries in North Minneapolis. They commemorated the Freedom Summer anniversary of the deaths of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Mickey Schwerner and issued a call to action to the U.S. Congress to reinstate key provisions of the Voting Rights Act.
“Most people identify me as a janitor’s daughter that went to Cornell,” said school board candidate Iris Altamirano. A woman who beat the odds in her own life, Altamirano decided to run because, as a mother of two young children, she’s concerned about the opportunity gap. She believes she has the skills from her career as an organizer to make the district better for all students, especially from marginalized communities. “Minneapolis is a great city and we do a lot of great things and we are leaders in the country on a lot of amazing things,” she said. “I just think the opportunity gap should not be one of them.”Many people like her message. Continue Reading
To be fair to the Star Tribune, they didn’t screw up nearly as much as KSTP. In fact, the egregious mistake was in the headline, “140 voters used single mailbox”. This wasn’t asserted in the article. However, reporters don’t write the headlines, and the Star Tribune did at some point replace that headline on the web version. They’re unfortunately stuck with it in the print edition. It’s a screw up because even Brian Rice and KSTP never asserted 140 people registered using one mailbox. They rented mailboxes from the same mailbox rental business. Yes, quite a bit different. Continue Reading