[Mpls] Insight from a former chair election judge

[Dyna]

	First, let me say that I have never been more proud of my city than I 
was yesterday, with the exception of MPD's interference in our election 
process. I spent some time last week campaigning with a some 
african-american and somali-american youth in the past few days, and 
was about the only anglo and over 30 year old in the group. I was 
impressed with these young folks political savvy- while the official 
Kerry campaign was sending volunteers to places like Edina to get out 
the vote, these kids had political radar, taking us on a campaign tour 
along Lake Street, to the Souks, through Cedar Riverside, and up West 
Broadway to bring out every new voter for the DFL. These young folks 
are the bright future of our city, and surely there are some future 
council members and maybe a mayor among them... Which reminds me that 
R.T. deserves mucho kudos for his hard work to deliver Minnesota for 
Kerry and in behalf of other progressive candidates like Patty 
Wetterling. R.T. has thusly earned my endorsement for mayor should he 
choose to run again.

On Wednesday, November 3, 2004, at 11:59 AM, fmarkus wrote:

> Why not use the GIS technology that the City has already paid for to 
> make
> life in the polling station a little easier on everyone concerned? And 
> print
> that 100-foot string statute in the chair judge manuals so we can all 
> know
> what we're doing.

	Researching the confiscation of my campaign truck by Minneapolis 
Police yesterday I find that the election officials themselves had no 
problem with it. However, Republican Party officials complained 
voiciferously about it and MoveOn's locations also. Most of this 
occurred also after our polling place was visited by a lawyerish 
looking guy who drove up in a Mercedes SUV with North Dakota plates 
with a Bush sticker blocking his rearward vision. Suffice to say if he 
was here to vote he'd better get Minnesota plates real quick to at 
least to cover his tracks. The complaint itself is defective on at 
least a half dozen counts, and much of it is just plain unreadable- in 
fact it resembles the incomplete complaints given to disabled 
protestors who staged a sit in at the governors office a couple years 
ago. Those complaints were used to justify arresting the protesters to 
get them out of the office, then they  were promptly released and the 
"charges" thrown out. It appears that neither the election judges or 
MPD bothered to ascertain the distance from the polling place to my 
campaign truck as I had before parking it. In fact, both independent 
election observers and party lawyers appear to have been camped out 
within the 100 foot radius of the polling place and were never moved. 
There was also a Bush campaign sign within 100 feet of the polling 
place that is still standing. If the election officials care to use the 
100 feet from the property line argument, as Fred says, they need to 
know where the property line is. At the polling place in question, the 
property line(s) are not the sidewalk, and I suspect MPD would be quite 
surprised at where they are. MPD and the election judges also need to 
seriously reconsider if they want to strictly enforce the 100 foot from 
the public property line interpretation- they would thusly outlawing 
homeowners lawn signs on the near mile long periphery of some of our 
parks that contain polling places!

	As well as confiscating my campaign vehicle, MPD was also witnessed 
yesterday chasing MoveOn volunteers from their chairs with flashing 
lights ablaze and last night cited a prominent local african-american 
athlete for exercising his right to free speech. So in conclusion, 
great job R.T. and Minneapolis, but isn't it time we got MPD under 
control?

	from over 80% DFL 3-9,

		Dyna Sluyter