Video from Candidate Round Up in Heartland Park Sept 19, 2020

On September 19, 2020 League of Women Voters Park Rapids and the Park Rapids Enterprise teamed up to cosponsor an opportunity for each local candidate to address their voters.   All candidates that would have been invited to League candidate forums in a "normal" year were invited to give a 10 minute speech introducing themselves and address 3 main issues that the League felt local voters were interested in.  

Not all candidates were able to attend due to other commitments.  We thank the following candidates for being able to rearrange their schedules. 

 

Candidates Attending

Bob Wills :  Park Rapids City Council
Liz Stone: Park Rapids City Council
Alan Roy: Senate District 2
David Suby: House 2B
Jeremiah Liend: House 2A
Dan Stacy: Hubbard County Commissioner
Char Christenson: Hubbard County Commissioner
Cliff Tweedale : Vote Yes Committee
Dana Kocka: Statement read by League member 

The Park Rapids Enterprise streamed this event on Facebook Live and the video below is the back up video.  

Our Election Procedures are secure: Hubbard County is Ready

 

As the Voter Service Co-Chairs for the League of Women Voters Park Rapids Area (LWVPRA), we would like to thank both the Park Rapids Enterprise and Kay Rave, Hubbard County Auditor, and her team. Part of LWVPRA’s mission is to educate the voters about the election process. Over the last month there have been a couple of articles published that address this year’s elections. We particularly applaud the article published in the Enterprise (“Filing opens July 28 for local seats: Written By: Enterprise staff  Jul 23rd 2020”). It provides local voters with the information they need in order to run for a local office and instructions on how to handle either mail-in ballots (as used by 40% of our townships) and absentee ballots that are available upon request to all other voters in Hubbard County.

As part of our education mission, the League would like to remind voters in Hubbard County that using an absentee or mail-in ballot is safe, but you need to follow the instructions carefully. One rule is that all ballots postmarked by Election Day (Nov. 3) will be counted even if the Post Office delivers them after Nov. 3. But if you mail a letter here at the Park Rapids Post Office or other nearby Post Offices, that letter travels to the Twin Cities to get a postmark. Please allow a couple of days for this travel time. The best advice is to get your ballot early and vote immediately. Don’t wait until the last minute. There is a drop box on the east side of the Hubbard County Courthouse to deposit your ballot by 3 p.m. on Election Day.

Kay Rave and her team are working very hard to have precincts ready for voting Nov. 3. They have new DS200 ballot counters to replace old, worn out M100’s. They also now have a super-fast DS450 Central Count ballot scanner to count all the ballots coming in by mail, dropped off or completed in person at the Courthouse. Plans are in place to make sure our voting in Hubbard County is secure and accurate. Now the voters just have to do their part and vote.

LWVPRA is also working on plans to help voters get to know local candidates. Our plan with the help of the Park Rapids Enterprise is to have a series of Facebook Live candidate forums during the week of Sept. 28. LWVPRA will be contacting the campaigns by the end of August with more details. (If a candidate does not get this letter please contact us.) The forums will host the candidates, a moderator, a timekeeper and camera operator but no in-person audience. All questions will be submitted by email from the public before the forum.

Another way for voters to get information is to check the LWVUS website called Vote411.org. Local candidates are being invited to answer 3 or 4 policy questions relevant to this area and then provide contact information and their website. This is a site that everyone can check to compare candidates. Please encourage your candidate to respond to these questions as it will give everyone a way to educate themselves on the issues. 

Lastly LWVPRA will be posting yard signs, posters and other reminders around the county for how to Vote From Home. If you have any questions or concerns please contact LWVPRA at lwvparkrapids@lwvmn.org.

Carolynne White and Barb Wiebesick 
Co Chairs LWVPRA Voters Service

We need help with the Census count in Hubbard County

Challenge your neighbors, friends, family, everyone, now, to increase Hubbard County's self-response rate and beat our 2010 Census self-response rate of 57%.

Encourage people to respond on their own now. Minimize the need for census takers to visit households beginning in mid-August. Do what you can to help Hubbard County reach a complete and accurate count.

Completing the Census is easy, on-line at 2020census.gov, by phone to 844-330-2020, or by completing and returning the form that was sent to your home around April 1. If you don't remember getting a form just call 844-330-2020 for assistance. Every person from newborn infants to elders counts. Whether or not you're a citizen YOU COUNT!

Responses to the census help shape the future of our community and inform how hundreds of billions of dollars in federal funding are distributed for important programs and services. Among them are healthcare, emergency and disaster response, education, roads and bridges and other infrastructure. Don’t miss out on your opportunity to get support for these and other vital services in our community for the next 10 years. Respond online, by phone, or by mail by October 31. 

If you have other questions or concerns call 218-732-9226 and we'll do our best to help you!

Honor our history of voting rights

This was supposed to be a year of special celebrations for the League of Women Voters (LWV) Park Rapids. LWV had planned several events to celebrate women getting the right to vote 100 years ago and the League of Women Voters being formed.

The League was created to educate voters on issues and voting procedures. LWV Park Rapids had planned to host a Traveling Exhibit on national and local League history during May. The exhibit had to be postponed, but members hope to greet you all when you visit the exhibit in May 2021.

In the meantime in our world of virtual celebrations, LWV has another way to celebrate this historic occasion.. PBS is airing a new documentary, The Vote. It is “a two-part, four-hour documentary chronicling the dramatic culmination story of the hard-fought campaign waged by American women for the right to vote.” According to a League of Women Voters US newsletter, “The Vote brings to life the unsung leaders of the movement and the deep controversies over gender roles and race that divided Americans then - and (that) continues to dominate political discourse now on the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment.“

 The documentary will air Monday, July 6 at 8 p.m. and Tuesday, July 7 at 8 p.m. on Lakeland Public TV. You can also view it online or your streaming service.

This is a great opportunity to learn about the campaign waged by American women for the right to vote that results in the largest expansion of voting rights in U.S. history. The next step is to go to the Secretary of State’s website https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/register-to-vote. Check to make sure you are registered to vote and you can check out the “other ways to vote” tab with information about absentee voting.

Honor the struggle of our ancestors by exercising your right to vote. Anyone with questions about registering and voting can ask a local league member by emailing lwvparkrapids@lwvmn.org.

Watch for information about local candidate forums at the end of September on the website (lwvparkrapidsarea.blogspot.com) and in newspapers.

If you want more information about this documentary: click here

Thoughts on the upcoming Census: March 12th

I was doing some research today about how people are going to respond to the census. (People should start getting the notices to fill out the census on March 12th.)

Then I was talking with a younger friend who doesn't watch much TV, or read newspapers etc. but does see things on Facebook.   She was unaware that the census was coming: what it is used for and its importance.  That took me by surprise.  I explained as much as I could and her reaction was WOW, we need to tell people this!  As far as she knows she has never filled out the census. She is not sure if others in her extend family fill it out either.  When she was living with her grandfather 10 years ago, he probably filled it out for the household.  She does not know.

Therefore I'm adding this blog to the conversation:  Everyone and especially everyone in rural counties need to make sure everyone is counted. To do this, talk with your neighbors, your extended family, any young adults you have contact with... tell them this census is important.

The census gathers the data that business, government, etc use to make decisions for the next 10 years.

Everyone needs to read their mail!  Don't throw away envelopes as junk mail.  Open the ones from the government.. find your unique ID number...go online and fill out the census.. Be counted...Help your county plan for the next 10 years. 

Your public library can help you get online if you need a computer. 

LWV Park Rapids celebrates 100th anniversary

The City of Park Rapids has proclaimed that Feb. 14 is a Day of Celebration for the 100th Anniversary of the League of Women Voters (LWV).  LWV Park Rapids Area joins more than 700 other local and state chapters to celebrate this historic milestone. 

 On Feb 14, the local League will be holding a Birthday Party at the Third Street Market. The community is invited to join LWV members at 4:30 p.m. for birthday cake (pick your own beverage from the menu). The celebration will also have a program to present information about a traveling exhibit coming to Nemeth Art Center during May, some local League history and the beginnings of League of Women Voters. Please RSVP to the birthday celebration invitation by calling 218 732 9226. 

Looking to the future on the threshold of the next 100 years, League is excited that dedicated members across Hubbard County continue to steadily attract significant numbers of volunteers, who share League’s commitment to Making Democracy Work. LWV is a citizens’ organization that has fought since 1920 to improve our government and engage all citizens in the decisions that impact their lives. LWV operates at national, state and local levels through more than 700 state and local Leagues in all 50 states as well as in Washington, D.C., the Virgin Islands and Hong Kong.  

LWV was founded by Carrie Chapman Catt in 1920, just six months before the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving all American women the right to vote after a 72-year fight for women’s suffrage. From the beginning, League has been a non partisan, grassroots organization whose leaders believed that citizens should play a critical role in advocacy for the issues that affect their lives. In order to support that role, the local League has sponsored numerous educational programs on local issues as well as candidate forums. For more information, please look at our website (http://lwvparkrapidsarea.blogspot.com/) or email lwvparkrapids@lwvmn.org.

Presidential Primary 101: The Nuts and Bolts of this New Process.

A Minnesota presidential primary has been held four times in our state’s history: 1916, 1952, 1956 and 1992. The state of Minnesota normally holds presidential caucuses instead. On May 22, 2016 Governor Mark Dayton signed a bill that will reinstate a presidential primary on March 3, 2020. (Early voting begins Jan. 17th)

The procedures for this presidential primary will be new to most of us.  To understand the “nuts and bolts” of this new system, please plan to attend the League of Women Voters’ program Presidential Primary 101: The Nuts and Bolts Thursday, Jan. 23 at the

Northwoods Bank Community Room, Park Rapids. The program starts at 6 p.m.

League members will review the details during the program. Then there will be time for questions with a representative from the County Auditor’s Office as well as Hubbard County election judges who will be there.


While most voters think of the presidential election as happening in November every four years,  the process actually begins with state caucuses or presidential primaries. These will be held in some states starting in January and other states later leading up to the Party Conventions in the summer. The first official step in the process for Minnesota voters will be the presidential nominating primary.

The presidential nominating primary is part of the way that Minnesota voters decide which presidential candidates appear on their ballots in November. The presidential nominating primary is not a traditional election for a candidate. It is a process for the political party that looks and feels just like an election because local election officials administer it in the same way they administer an election. But it is not actually an election for a candidate.

Some things will be the same as in our other elections but there are differences. For example, the same information that is public when you register to vote and vote in a typical election will also be public if you vote in the presidential nominating primary.  But in our other elections, officials do not make your party preference public. However in the Presidential Primary, state law requires the Secretary of State to share your party preference with the chairs of the major political parties. This is because the political parties need to know who voted in their presidential nominating primaries. (Remember, the presidential nominating primary is a political party process, not a traditional election.)  How you voted, such as the candidate you voted for or if you submitted a write-in candidate, will not be public information and will not be shared with party chairs. Another difference is that only individuals eligible to vote (i.e., age 18 or older) on the day of the presidential nominating primary day (March 3), may vote in the presidential nominating primary. (Those under 18 but turning 18 by or on Nov. 2, 2020 may participate in the Party Caucuses.)

Minnesota made the change to a presidential primary to increase access and opportunities to vote for many Minnesotans, including those serving in the military, the elderly, and the disabled. Instead of having just one hour on one night to vote, Minnesotans will now have access to many of the benefits they’ve come to expect from our regular election process, including no-excuses absentee voting, same-day registration, and opportunities for those serving overseas.


Other Election Reminders: 

• Precinct caucuses will be held February 25, 2020, one week before the Presidential Nomination Primary.

• Primary Election Day is Tuesday, Aug. 11 for all other offices (early voting in June)
• Vote by mail or in person June 26 through Aug.10.
• Register in advance by July 21 to save time on Election Day

For more details on this primary election, please go to
https://www.lwvmn.org/picking-the-president-part1. or https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/how-elections-work/presidential-primary/?searchTerm=presidential%20primary

League of Women Voters Park Rapids Area  (LWVPRA), a non-partisan volunteer organization, whose mission is to encourage informed and active participation in government and influence public policy through education and advocacy.  All our programs are free and open to the public.  Please direct any questions about LWVPRA activities, events or on how to join LWVPRA (not for women only) by emailing 
lwvparkrapids@lwvmn.org. Follow our activities, events on this website: