[Mpls] Primary Turnout

[Loki Anderson]

     I'll agree that overall the low voter turnout is pathetic, but I do want to defend the honor of my old neighborhood. Precinct 3-1 is Dinkytown, where a great portion of the registered voters in the voter file have moved and a great number (probably a majority) of the eligible voters have only moved into the neighborhood within the last month. A lot of student voters are simply not motivated by local city issues and are seldom targeted by campaigns to engage their interest. In the neighboring precincts in the Second Ward students are getting a lot more attention from the campaigns, but I haven't heard of any similar effort being made by the Hofstede or Neumann campaigns. I don't think that's necessarily neglect, since the Third Ward stretches into three distinct communities (North, Northeast and Southeast) and I'm sure there are plenty of neighborhood events that are demanding their attention.
 
Loki Anderson
Downtown (formerly Dinkytown)


Erik Riese <erik at tcq.net> wrote:
Greetings List!
Many folks have mentioned turnout in the Citywide Primary.
Unofficial totals show 14.67% city wide.
Singling out Ward 3 Precinct 1 2.14% of the registered voters showed up 
to vote!

This is pathetic! We need to do something about how little the citizens 
care about their government. Perhaps we should institute an election 
quorum. Say 60% in a primary and 85% in a general. Unless we get that 
level of participation the election is void and we have to have a do 
over. At some point we could force a rotation of the candidates. The 
candidates would be forced to put their efforts into real get out the 
vote instead of just getting out their voters.

Minneapolis should lead the way in voter turn-out the MPLS-Issues list 
is a tool that should inspire participation. We need to change what is 
going on.

In cooperation,

Erik Riese
Seward US@:
A great place to live, work, learn, create and play.

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mailto:erik at tcq.net
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