In most locations, polls will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. To learn where you vote, visit the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website.
“We really need our base to take the time to vote,” said Dan O’Neill, president of the Duluth AFL-CIO Central Labor Body. “There isn’t even a mayor’s contest to get voters to the polls, but labor will be living with Tuesday’s results for many years. We need to turn out and vote for our candidates and referendums and levies.”
Referendums to increase funding for education are on the ballot in one-third of the state’s school districts because state allocations have fallen short of need, local officials say.
School advocates say the state legislature’s failure to adequately fund K-12 education gives local school districts little choice but to turn to levies tapping local property taxpayers’ wallets.
And, because some levies pass and some levies fail, the needs of students in some districts will be met, while student needs in other districts will go wanting.
“These are basic, essential levies that are needed to run the schools,” said Paul Mueller, vice president of Education Minnesota, the statewide teachers union. Mueller is a high school teacher in the Brooklyn Center school district.
In Duluth, the ballot also will include a referendum to raise money for parks and libraries.
“Parks and libraries are something everyone believes in and labor believes paying taxes is how you fund quality of life in a community,” O’Neill said.
In the Twin Cities east metro, voters will decide school levies in North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale, North Branch, Forest Lake, Stillwater and White Bear Lake.
Voters in the Anoka-Hennepin school district will find three levy questions on the ballot.
Mayoral, City Council and School Board races are on the ballot in many communities. In St. Paul, voters will decide all seven City Council seats and four School Board positions. For the first time, St. Paul voters will use the ranked voting process.
Voters in wards 1, 2 and 3 – each of which has three or more candidates running for City Council – will have the chance to rank candidates in preferential order on the ballot. A voter’s vote always counts for her highest-ranked candidate who can use it to get elected. Her second or additional choices are backup choices, and will only count if her first choice is eliminated – as would happen in a traditional runoff.
The ranked voting process is already in use for municipal elections in Minneapolis.
This article contains information from the Duluth Labor World and Minneapolis Labor Review.
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In most locations, polls will be open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. To learn where you vote, visit the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website.
“We really need our base to take the time to vote,” said Dan O’Neill, president of the Duluth AFL-CIO Central Labor Body. “There isn’t even a mayor’s contest to get voters to the polls, but labor will be living with Tuesday’s results for many years. We need to turn out and vote for our candidates and referendums and levies.”
Referendums to increase funding for education are on the ballot in one-third of the state’s school districts because state allocations have fallen short of need, local officials say.
School advocates say the state legislature’s failure to adequately fund K-12 education gives local school districts little choice but to turn to levies tapping local property taxpayers’ wallets.
And, because some levies pass and some levies fail, the needs of students in some districts will be met, while student needs in other districts will go wanting.
“These are basic, essential levies that are needed to run the schools,” said Paul Mueller, vice president of Education Minnesota, the statewide teachers union. Mueller is a high school teacher in the Brooklyn Center school district.
In Duluth, the ballot also will include a referendum to raise money for parks and libraries.
“Parks and libraries are something everyone believes in and labor believes paying taxes is how you fund quality of life in a community,” O’Neill said.
In the Twin Cities east metro, voters will decide school levies in North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale, North Branch, Forest Lake, Stillwater and White Bear Lake.
Voters in the Anoka-Hennepin school district will find three levy questions on the ballot.
Mayoral, City Council and School Board races are on the ballot in many communities. In St. Paul, voters will decide all seven City Council seats and four School Board positions. For the first time, St. Paul voters will use the ranked voting process.
Voters in wards 1, 2 and 3 – each of which has three or more candidates running for City Council – will have the chance to rank candidates in preferential order on the ballot. A voter’s vote always counts for her highest-ranked candidate who can use it to get elected. Her second or additional choices are backup choices, and will only count if her first choice is eliminated – as would happen in a traditional runoff.
The ranked voting process is already in use for municipal elections in Minneapolis.
This article contains information from the Duluth Labor World and Minneapolis Labor Review.