While our Mayor, Health Director and City Attorney continue to tell us they don’t have the legal authority to close businesses (even though it is clearly spelled out in our charter that they can close businesses based on threats to public health) there seems to be another strange conspiracy brewing.
It seems the governor is pointing fingers at the SOS and they both are pointing fingers at the legislature while the legislature is pointing fingers back at them while our city clerk is trying to scrounge up boy scouts to run the polls.
I have argued all along, if we can’t find poll workers to work the April election, we can’t have an election. Who cares about state law?
But there’s a funny rumor being spread around by Republican lawmakers; they fear moving the municipal elections to the June primaries would give advantages to Democrats running for office.
Huh?!
First off, most, if not all municipal elections and school board elections are non-partisan. What Democrats would have an advantage? I also think Biden will already be the nominee before June, so there really wouldn’t be a reason for Dems to show up in June accept for a handful of Democratic primaries. If anything, I think Dems would have a bigger advantage voting in April. But either way, I have heard some pretty goofy things from the majority party in SD, but this one takes the cake.
Do the right thing, postpone the elections until June. You will have a higher voter turnout, save taxpayers money, and most importantly keep people safe while voting. Why does everything have to be political with Republicans in our state? This is about public safety and not politics.
City officials defer to blame the state for health restrictions. Why do we have a health director? If they can build an unnecessary parking bunker; they can buy masks, ventilators, and virus tests. With no gathering restrictions, we’ll not lots.
Doesn’t matter about postponed elections. Who wants to hold office in this environment. It’s more important to lock down what we have. We can blame them later and install better leaders.
Not extending the time to get your petitions in for candidacy are an evil Republican Party plot, if you ask me.
The Dems should sue on this. The position of the SDDP is that Dems wouldn’t win, but so what. Dems need to show they have some guts. Dems need to stop trying to play patty cake with the SD GOP.