Announcing LWVPRA 2022 Candidate Forums

 

The League of Women Voters (LWV) is proud to be nonpartisan, neither supporting nor opposing candidates or political parties at any level of government, but always working on vital issues of concern to members and the public.

LWV Park Rapids Area welcomes the community back to our traditional in-person candidate forums moderated by an experienced and League trained moderator. These forums concentrate on locally contested elections (having two or more candidates filing for an office) so citizens can hear directly from the candidates. All candidates who file for Park Rapids School Board, County Commissioner Dist. 3 and Park Rapids City Council have been invited to participate in the forums.

The following Candidate Forums will be held at Northwoods Bank Community Room, 1200 1st St. East, Park Rapids. All forums are free and open to the public and will start promptly at 7 p.m. The community room is handicapped accessible.

• Monday, Sept. 26:   Park Rapids City Council candidates, 
• Tuesday, Sept. 27:   Park Rapids School Board candidates 
• Wednesday, Sept. 28:  Hubbard County Commissioner candidates for Dist. 3.
  

The goal is to give each candidate equal time to address the issues and to get as many questions asked as possible within the hour. The audience can help by listening respectfully to the answers and not making comments during the forum. After each forum there will be time for you to connect with the candidates for any specific questions.

The public may submit questions relevant to the office the candidate is seeking and which will be asked by the trained moderator. Voters attending the forum have two opportunities to submit questions to the candidates. The LWVPRA also has an email for voters to submit questions in advance. That email address is lwvparkrapids@lwvmn.org.

Please indicate the name of the forum in questions submitted by email 

The deadline for email questions is Saturday, Sept. 24. 

By LWV policy, the identity of the person asking the question is confidential. Any questions submitted via email will remain confidential with all identifying information removed before the event. Audience members will also have the opportunity to submit questions in writing at the event, in accordance with forum rules.

Please direct any questions about LWV Park Rapids Area (LWVPRA) activities, events or on how to join by emailing: lwvparkrapids@lwvmn.org.

Policy Notice: 

Statement on Candidate Forum Recordings
The League of Women Voters sponsors candidate forms to provide the public with an opportunity to hear candidates discuss the issues that are important to members of the public. The League is a nonpartisan organization that does not support or oppose any political party or candidate. The views expressed in each forum are those of the candidates, not those of the League of Women Voters. LWV posts complete, unedited recordings of forums. Editing is authorized only for official media reporting. Excerpts or edited clips of candidate forums may not be used for partisan, political purposes.

 

 

Count the ways Minnesota elections are safe and secure

 This article was published in the Park Rapids Enterprise on Wednesday Sept 14th. 

The League of Women Voters is proud to be nonpartisan, neither supporting nor opposing candidates or political parties at any level of government, but always working on vital issues of concern to members and the public.
One of the most vital issues to be addressed this election season is the security of our elections. We need to remember that each state runs its own elections, so when we read about “problems” in other states that does not necessarily apply to Minnesota.
According to audits and reviews by the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office and the Legislative Auditor’s Office, Minnesota elections are safe and secure.
This is also affirmed by the Hubbard County auditor’s office.

• From when a vote is received at the precinct until it is certified by the county and state, teams of election judges, represented by different parties, handle the ballots.
• At the state level, a bipartisan post-election audit is conducted to certify the election, which is open to the public, and includes a final report for all counties.
• After the audit, all ballots are kept locally in protected storage for 22 months.
• A formal complaint and public recount process already exists to address  any errors that may occur.
  

Election results are not official until they have been reviewed and certified by a local canvassing board.
The canvassing board, made up of local officials, checks to make sure the numbers received from the county and election judges at the precincts match. If the numbers don’t match, the canvassing board must figure out where the discrepancy came from before they can certify the results.

Canvassing boards are also involved in the process of randomly selecting precincts for review after every statewide general election. They can also oversee any recounts. This makes the election results official, pending legal challenges.

After the information is canvassed, the county moves to the post-election review. This process is open to the public. Officials involved are again working in bipartisan pairs at all times.

Additional election security measures are in place statewide:

•  The biggest security system is the decentralization of our election system – there is no “central” or federal system that can be hacked or tampered with. There are federal standards, but each state sets its own laws and standards.
•  Even the padlocks used to seal election results information and voting machines are tracked via serial number to ensure no one tampers with them.
•  Election officials must verify that voting machines are printing out zeros at the start of the day.
•  Paper trails are key in Minnesota and are used at practically every step in the process to check and recheck results.
• Testing of vote tabulator machines is public.
• Minnesota has challengers –not poll watchers or poll observers – on Election Day and during the absentee vote certification process, but challengers must have personal knowledge that the person they are challenging is not eligible to vote.
• Minnesota has a process for people to file complaints if they believe something went wrong or if they saw something against our election laws happening at a polling place. Complaints are turned over to the county attorney.
• Transparency is a main focus of the Minnesota elections system.
  

National Voter Registration Day

Sept. 20 is National Voter Registration Day.

Members of League of Women Voters Park Rapids Area will be available at the Park Rapids Area Library to answer questions and provide information.
Additional resources

For more information, visit these websites:

Minnesota Secretary of State canvassing boards: https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/how-elections-work/canvassing-boards .

Personal knowledge to challenge a voter’s eligibility: https://www.sos.state.mn.us/elections-voting/election-day-voting/rules-for-challengers .

League of Women Voters Park Rapids is preparing for midterm elections

 

This article was published in the Park Rapids Enterprise 9/7/22

Preparing for Midterm Elections

For more than 100 years, the League of Women Voters has been a trusted source of nonpartisan voter registration and education, and a longstanding witness to Minnesota’s proud tradition of voter access and election integrity. This tradition has been upheld by trained election professionals who, together with local election judges from all major parties, conduct and verify our elections and ensure that all votes are correctly counted, using the many safeguards we

currently have in place. Sadly, misinformation following the 2020 elections is undermining voter confidence and has resulted in hostility toward election officials, efforts to impede voter access to polling places and party balance of election judges.

Please take time to learn more about best practices and safeguards associated with Minnesota elections. Take note of the additional reports and sources that continue to document confidence in the 2020 elections. A LWVMN March 2021 on-line seminar interviewing a panel of election officials and judges from across the state affirmed that our Minnesota elections were and remain, fair and accurate.

In the next several weeks, prior to the November midterm elections, the LWV Park Rapids Area will help by sharing information for the voting public. We will include information on a variety of election related subjects and hold in person candidate forums for local elections the last week in September.  To protect our democracy, we must assure our citizens that the process of voting in Minnesota has the safeguards in place to protect both voter access and election integrity.

League of Women Voters Park Rapids Area  (LWVPRA), a non-partisan organization, our mission is to encourage informed and active participation in government 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 by emailing:  

lwvparkrapids@lwvmn.org.