Election recommendations - part one of several: Steve Simon for Secretary of State. As most folks know, Im a Green. I often vote for DFLers, but often without much enthusiasm (see Dayton, Mark). But I will be VERY enthusiastically filling in my oval for Steve Simon for Secretary of State. Steve is great. Here are four reasons hes great. Reason #1, and the most important: he is passionate about making sure its easy for people to participate in our democratic processes, whether they agree with him or not. Thats what we need in a Secretary of State, and why hell make a great one. He authored the bill to allow no-excuse absentee voting. He wants people to vote. Reason #2: he did a heck of a lot to defeat the horrible photo ID requirement for voting. (Thus helping prove #1 above.) Reason #3: he gave among the best speeches against the anti-marriage amendment (https://youtube/watch?v=hXpOA3jPC04) and for marriage equality (https://youtube/watch?v=JhyrNLKROuA). If you havent watched those, go watch them right now. Now, is that badass or what? Reason #4, and this one matters to me a lot: hes a steadfast supporter of election reform. He gets that our election system needs to acknowledge that there are more than two parties, so he supports ranked choice voting. He has carried the bill to allow smaller cities to use RCV, if they choose. Every Green, Green-leaner, and Independent should vote for him on this alone. Hes the candidate who a) supports RCV and b) can win. He even has really cute, funny, positive, watchable ads: https://youtube/watch?v=Uyc2sXv_YFQ. In case all of that isnt enough, people should also be motivated to vote against his opponent, Dan Severson. Hes a punk. He supported the photo ID amendment, which was more stringent than Mississippis (and the one that just got struck down in Wisconsin, by the way). Hes said that it was immoral that Minnesotas electoral votes went to Obama, and has claimed that Al Franken only won due to (nonexistent in the fact-based universe) voter fraud, corruption, and stuffing ballot boxes. He wants to make it HARDER to vote, because he and his ilk (justifiably) believe that when its easy for everyone - women, younger folks, people of color - to vote, Republicans will have a harder time winning elections. This is a critically important race. The contrast is huge: Steve Simon is fantastic and wants to make it easy for people to vote, and his opponent is a jerk who wants to make it harder. Unfortunately, its really close right now. So: vote for Steve Simon and tell all of your Minnesota-dwelling friends, family members and neighbors to do the same. If you give money to political campaigns, give some to Steve (stevesimonmn/donate/). But most importantly: vote.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 04:34:27 +0000
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