I guess it shouldn’t surprise us that the city and school district refuse to work with the counties on election consistency. Because gosh darn it, we are saving money. Even though Councilor Erpenchickenbachbach says she works with the counties in this episode of Inside Town Hall.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcW-qPC1pOs[/youtube]
its amazing how the money dries up as soon as its for something other than entertainment or the rich guy like Lloyd. Pretty disgusting to say the least. I hope this bozo and Erp are on the way out. I can only imagine his insurance firm hasn’t paid a claim in the past 4 or 5 years, or he would have to be working his butt off to keep a business going. Probably he must be rich, maybe richer than Lloyd or Erp. LOL
I guess I do not understand the confusion of “musical precinctsâ€. When I am considering voting on a ballot issue and/or going to vote, the one thing I always do first is look at a map…it’s in the newspaper the week before any election, this year it was in the Shoppers’ News too. You can get it from the website of the jurisdiction holding the election too.
Why is the onus not on the voter? Why is the voter not responsible to find out what the issues are, where to vote on the issues, and how to correctly mark a ballot. When I say correctly mark a ballot—I mean to fill in the oval completely, not circle it, not put a check mark in it, not write “this one” beside the name. When should it be on the voter not to spill anything on their ballot, or write a litany of all the things wrong with the government, or not fill in every oval in every race. When do we make people responsible for their own actions.
CC – I would agree completely with your assessment, voters do need to have some personal responsibility. But my issue is the government must also act responsibly, this includes having consistent polling places, and stop pinching pennies on elections. I figured the other day that the city probably spends a 1/3 on an election compared to what it takes to clean up the city after one snow event. We can afford to have clean and fair elections.
It seems apparent that the goal is to control elections. I suspect low voter turnout is because it’s to much trouble finding your polling place? What about the devious ballot language? You’re either not sure what you’re voting for or indirectly sold what you don’t want. At least put a lengthy disclaimer in tiny letters at the bottom of the ballot or give a fast talk spurt before you vote. Then we know our vote doesn’t count or the out of state RVers will be used to defeat the will of the people.
Voting Centers is all about voter suppression. The average voter doesn’t have time to spend the amount of time we political junkies and activists do on political matters. They have children to raise and jobs that distract them. Constantly changing where people vote and concentrating voters in a small number of locations may reduce the cos
Voting Centers are all about voter suppression. The average voter doesn’t have time to spend the amount of time we political junkies and activists do on political matters. They have children to raise and jobs that distract them. Constantly changing where people vote and concentrating voters in a small number of locations may reduce the cost for the city, but it transfers that cost to voters in increased wait time, travel time and parking expense. At memorial middle school at the last city election there was a traffic jam at 26th and Sertoma, it was all but impossible to park anywhere near the entry way to the school and many people parked improperly creating a safely risk in case of an emergency, and the wait in line once you got in line to vote was 15 minutes (I timed it.) (One has to wonder how many voters decided their one vote just wasn’t worth the effort.) All this in an election in which less than 35% of the voters voted. Imagine the congestion if a city election drew interest anywhere close to that of a general election’s average 60 to 70 percent.
Elections are our substitute for armed warfare and tyranny to solve political questions. Cost is the least important consideration when conducting elections. Maintaining public trust in their outcome ranks number one. Combined with the incompetence of our current Minnehaha Auditor, the city clerk upside down priorities adds to the slow erosion of that trust. The city council would serve us well by ending her flirtation with an untried technology and have her run elections the old fashion and tried and true way.
I was in New York City a while ago and noticed people lined up around a block. I asked what they were in line for (I thought perhaps tickets for a concert or something) and a guy said to vote in a city election. I asked how long he had been in line and he said 4 hours and it would likely be two more…so 15 minutes to exercise your right to vote doesn’t sound so bad to me.