POLLING PLACE VOTING: This will be Anoka County specific, but the process is generic. Anoka County voters can access a sample ballot online, by starting here. You give your town, then street, then house number range; and that allowed me to see my Ramsey, Ward 1, Precinct 1 ballot sample, here.
You can see from this screenshot that once I entered my home site info the website returned the location of my polling place [click to enlarge]:
Because all ward seats up this term in Ramsey are narrowed to two candidates, all the Ramsey ward and precinct ballots should look the same, for example, the Ward 2, precinct 1 ballot, online here, is the same as mine, or appears to be - and that Ward 2 seat is up this cycle, but with only two candidates, and each going on to the general election.
Where I need help from the comments, is the Supreme Court seats. Usually the incumbent prevails there, because voters know little, and go for incumbency. If you, readers, know anything about any of the candidates, particularly on the pro-choice, anti-choice issue; please post a comment.
It used to be you could vote an incumbent and feel safe in not having selected a rabid anti-choice zealot. With Pawlenty having had a hand in appointments recently that's not a fully reliable thing anymore. So, readers, help me and one another out.
Is it endorsement time now? Yes, in the sense that here's my ballot, with my choices, (and as an independent I am unsure of which party ballot I will use).
So, if I chose to vote GOP, see the red marks; if I choose DFL see the blue marks; and though highly unlikely, if I choose IP, see the black marks (but the truth is I will not be voting that ballot).
It's either GOP or DFL, click to enlarge:
For the Ramsey mayor seat, I see Bob Ramsey and Terri Cleveland as the two left in the running after the primary. For the at large council seat, I am undecided and will make my choice in private in the voting booth - but I have marked my Ramsey choices in Green - Bob Ramsey for Mayor; and Jeff Wise and Melody Shryock, at large.
My reasoning is: Bob Ramsey seems a generally trustworthy person who is against municipal waste and excess. He and I have points of agreement and disagreement. He is someone I feel I can talk to and not doubt things being said to me, which is a refreshing thing for me to feel about the mayoral position. Cleveland got appointed by the entrenched-incumbency cabal, to the planning commission, and she has a background as a planner. There has been too much Gamec - Elvig - Haas Steffen unanimous council voting and entrenched insider action already, and too much planning failure to last Ramsey for years. Planner failure is all too apparent in the Town Center debacle, having the expensive Ramp in the middle of nowhere and the $19 million City Hall that would have lost resoundingly if the planners' and entrenched politicians' cabal had put it on a referendum ballot, as straightforwardness and courage would have suggested proper.
Bob Ramsey, I believe, understands the referendum sentiment I and others feel. Cleveland ran against Berg for County Council last cycle, posturing against the Viking Stadium thing and speaking about referendum then, but not now. She's a lot of generic BS on the website, but nothing saying "referendum" and nothing saying she has any position or thought of any kind, about sewer/water proliferation. Looking at the website makes her come across as a real lightweight fearful of taking a real or sensible stance on anything. A planner.
So, Cleveland, a light-weight planner tied to that group for which the broom is needed - and there is the Kiefers, with more entrenchment on appointed boards and such.
And Kieth Kiefer when I ran for mayor against Pattiann Kurak and Gamec in 2004 put out an election eve attack mailing against me which he did not sign, and I have called him to his face a coward for doing so, that way, without putting his name to his handiwork. He filled out and signed the "Coalition for Ramsey's Future" disclosure form that the law required him to file with the City Clerk, but the negative mailing had him declining to put his name to it and behind it.
That Coalition thing previously was headquarted at the Elvig cabinet shop site in Anoka, a corporate gift of free rental to an issue-oriented advocacy group, but in the month or two before the 2004 general election the website registration was changed to use Kiefer and the Kiefer home address instead of Elvig and the Elvig business address for the "Coalition" and its activities.
Hence I personally would never vote for either of the Kiefers. But others might feel differently. Perhaps, to be as informed a voter as possible, you might want to ask the Kiefer neighbors along Rivlyn, down by the river, who they're voting for and why.
The only coin-toss choice in my mind is Ramsey Council, at large.
Jeff Wise is a Ramsey business owner who has told me he would like to see "those people" - the Ramsey government - have to operate under the constraints they would face as if they were competing, as a business, and I feel quite favorable toward that fiscally responsible line of thought applied to this municipality at this point in time. Waste and error have been rampant. Melody Shryock has a planning background, a degree in planning, which I view as a major strike against her; however, she has indicated a firm grasp of the view of many in Ramsey (her parents included) who have lived here a long time (at least since the 70's) with older homes on larger [1+ acre] lots with working paid-for private well and septic tank systems, who fear a cram-down forced hookup somewhere in the future, at a mid-five figure tax-and-assessment cost; and not at any lesser more tolerable value. The present mayor and I got into a heated conversation at one of the Comp Plan sessions when he verbally downplayed the forced-hookup fear and characterized my position as fear-mongering, and I in turn accused him (with the words "bullshit" and "pile of crap" used if I recall right) of posturing that all cause for such fears were unjustified when in fact there had been an actual attempt in the past during his term(s) as mayor to achieve forced hookups, (an effort around the old Nowthen Blvd. City Hall location), that led to protective Charter language we presently have that Terry Hendriksen was most influential in our attaining.
Things were different back when Hendriksen, Margaret Connolly, and Jerry Zimmerman held three of five council votes. It was a time which I refer to as "the good old days."
Regarding the actual threatened cost many face, and for the forthrightness for which I respect Brian Olson, see here. It's real and it's the truth and anyone characterizing that household worry as fear-mongering is, well, you decide.
Brian's honest numbers were sobering.
So, Shryock understands that historically motivated aspect of some in Ramsey not liking sewer-water proliferation, yet she also might have drank some Town Center Planner Koolaid - she will have to define that aspect of her candidacy herself if she, as I expect, is one of the two at large candidates left standing for the general election.
I expect I will vote for Jeff Wise, in the booth, this time, this primary. But it's not a certainty as yet that I will go that way. Hence the dual ballot marking for only that race.
ABSENTEE VOTING: Apparently, absentee ballot forms can be filled out and filed with the Secretary of State, online. Start with this entry link.
The form can be downloaded as: standard Adobe pdf format; Microsoft Word format; and large-text pdf. From the link URLs, saying "english" I presume there is Spanish text available.
(During the Kiffmeyer regime as SoS, things were not that easy, were they, she wanted picture ID cards and such, didn't she?)
YOU MUST CONFIRM all details about steps needed to cast an absentee ballot with the Secretary of State or Anoka County election people, not from anything I post here.
This is a lead-in to try to be helpful, but it is not a substitute for you getting things correct. If there's an error and somebody's vote goes uncounted, I am not responsible. It's your vote, you are responsible.
A clarification on absentee voting. What you get online is the application to be provided an absentee ballot, not a ballot itself. A form can be filled out at County Hall, at the elections office window, for the same outcome. My recollection voting once absentee, is that the application is tendered; and the ballot is mailed with a return envelope and instructions; but that's a hazy recollection. Use the initial SoS link above, or go to County Hall, to be sure.
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NOTE: Credit U.S. Sixth Congressional District GOP candidate Aubrey Immelman, for the helpful "voting-hints" idea (See his website here, for his posting, but remember it has specific information for his residency area, at the western end of the Sixth District - and he credits a mailing sent OUT by GOP incumbent Michele Bachmann).
Immelman's posting also is my source for the Secretary of State absentee info.
I received no Bachmann mailing as he alludes to, so it might have been party-targeted info.
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TELL ME: Why am I saying to myself, "I received no such helpful thing from the DFL, is it because I was phone surveyed and gave a 'wrong' answer about my dislike of Elwyn Tinklenberg, or is it because one major party is well-organized and the other is the DFL?"
_____________CORRECTION PLUS UPDATE________________
I erred in saying Terri Cleveland was schooled as a planner. Her website says, on the "experience" page, "Graduated Magna Cum Laude with B.A. in Public Administration, University of Northern Iowa. Graduated Cum Laude with Masters in Public Policy, University of Northern Iowa." She got good grades, and in Public Administration not planning. The same kind of degree James Norman brought to the table.
I still go with the "light-weight" assessment. Website, main page, Cleveland informs us her slogan is, "Leadership with Integrity and Experience." Is she going to call herself a dishonest novice, of course not.
I liked "It's me, or more of the same." People voted for and surely they got more of the same. Bless them for believing.
Experience, Cleveland says. Her "experience" webpage says, "Eight years of local government experience (city, county, and regional)." Doing what, and for a 57 year old, with an advanced Public Administration degree, eight years is really not a lot.
No paying job experience of any kind indicated, as part of the experience you'd expect from someone wanting to be mayor, unless it is, "Employed by Anoka-Hennepin School District #11." There's no "eight year" claim there, in fact, there is no duration dimension stated ot it at all. Nor a statement of job responsibility or duties. No show of progression from level to level, etc. Part-time or full-time? Continuous, or intermittent?
Cleveland first filed for council at large, but during the filing period she switched for reasons her website fails to justify. Whim and fancy, or an explainable act of deep conscience?
"Site designed and maintained by the candidate," her site says. Okay. Have a look. Judge it. She says if elected she would, "Advocate for accountability of all city departments and promote standards that encourage management to utilize human resources effectively and efficiently."
Do you see why I thought she was a planner? Speaking that way? She does not say she sees one single thing wrong with things as they are, with the status quo. But what? She will advocate. What does "promote standards that encourage management to utilize human resources effectively and efficiency," mean to you when she points out nary a thing wrong with how "human resources" are being used at present? More of the same, is what it indirectly says to me.
When I ran I said I would work to fire James Norman. Specifically. Someone eamailed and asked why, as if any sentient human could not figure out a host of reasons, and my specific reply was the way the Port Authority mischief was handled without any council resolution for such a thing ever having been passed and yet with the thing showing up before the legislature.
I was not elected. Luckily Norman fired himself.
The entire Ramsey planning and growth effort's proven to be a colossal failure, but the words "error" or "fail" or "mistake" or "misdirection" or "misallocation" are wholly absent from Terri Cleveland's web expose. To me it is pure BS to say, "Advocate for accountability of all city departments and promote standards that encourage management to utilize human resources effectively and efficiently."
It is as if she's saying, I see and point out nothing at all that's broken, but, trust me, I will advocate to fix it.
Uh-huh.
Sure.
Here's a kicker, "Terri Cleveland will: Move forward with the Ramsey Town Center development, but with no excess burden on taxpayers." It's in foreclosure and in litigation but with the foreclosure sale repeatedly postponed in a way Gilbert and Sullivan would love. So, Terri, a hint, just a hint please, HOW to "move forward ..." given the realities and circumstances.
This is a person schooled in Public Administration, blowing pure smoke.
Stating platitudes with nothing you can hang your hat on as to what she'd do if elected. How should Ramsey deal with the banks and the foreclosure situation? What supervisory responsibilities were unmet in a situation going to litigation where there is a doubt over whether the City's contract with the master developer survives a lenders' foreclosure, or not? What to this individual is an "excess burden on taxpayers" when she has advanced not a single public word questioning blowing nineteen million dollars on an overbuilt City Hall nobody voted for except the incumbents on council needing to be swept out?
I can envision Cleveland going over to Ben Dover, the Ramsey taxpayer, and saying,
"Keep smiling, Ben. There's burden, and then there's excess burden. Ben, I went to school in Iowa with honors, to be mayor. To avoid excess burden. To enhance parks and trails but in a budget conscious way. To protect the community with enough safety personnel that are well trained and equipped."
So tell me, is there a problem with the parks now? Do we have an insufficient number of cops, ill-trained and unequipped?
She's not saying that.
So then tell me, in a comment if you are a Terri Cleveland supporter - how is her entire webpage something, anything, beyond saying she likes the status quo or at least finds no fault with it and intends to change nothing but to go with the flow while enjoying being Ms. Mayor?
Terri, if you read this, have a shot at a no bullshit set of answers in a comment - what do you really stand for and value, specifically and not in empty and insulting platitudes; what if anything do you see as wrong with the status quo; and what specifics do you have in mind as a detailed and coherent way to reorient or correct things?
Please, somebody post a response about what this candidacy is about besides Terri wants to be mayor.
Ben's waiting. We're all waiting. The little old lady in the Mondale commercial saying, "Where's the beef," is waiting. And what's the detail of the "experience" Cleveland touts besides volunteer work and something vague for the school board.
And Terri, you say "I have the knowledge and passion for OUR community to be YOUR best choice for mayor." Where in the world is there a single ounce of passion in saying, "Advocate for accountability of all city departments and promote standards that encourage management to utilize human resources effectively and efficiently"?
That is about as absolutely passionless a sentence as I can ever envision a human being with feelings of any kind writing.
Bob Ramsey has my vote. He might make mistakes, or decisions I disagree with, but he will not rest on a status quo without criticism, clear intent to change things, or empty platitudes.