Flowings of Your Everlasting Taffyman

A letter from james:

Friends,

I am writing this email towards the end of another very long day. We’re no
longer counting down to Election Day one day at a time, it’s now hours.
Something like 35 of them before the polls open at 7:00 a.m. Tuesday
morning.

As many of you know for the past 18 months I’ve been the campaign manager
for a man named Mark Ritchie who is running for Secretary of State (the
person in charge of our elections and making sure everyone can vote, and
every votes counts). Since all of my work over the past year and a half
really comes down to one day (Tuesday), I’m writing to ask you for a favor.

I took this job because during previous campaigns I had always been shocked
and appalled by the poor service, partisanship, and at times incompetence of
our current Secretary of State. I’ve also watched closely the last two
presidential elections. I’ve been scared by the things I saw in Ohio and
Florida, and how Secretaries of State there seem to be deciding who gets to
vote and who wins elections. I remember working at a Holiday gas station on
election night in 2000. I was working overnights and listening to the radio
all night. I remember feeling hopeless. I remember thinking that whether
Bush or Gore won, whether the election was stolen or not, I had nothing to
do with the outcome. I had, at least for that election, made no difference
whatsoever.

I don’t ever want to feel that way again. That’s why I took this job,
because voters should decide elections, not officials, not faulty machines
and hanging chads, voters. Whoever gets the most votes should win. I am
working for Mark because he believes that too. He is dedicated to the same
idea and he will always run elections fairly, even if it means he or his
party will lose. It’s about the voters.

This is going to be a very close election. We’re down the ballot in a race
not many people know about.

I need your help.

There is a message below, about Mark, about the office, about how to vote,
and about why it matters. Please read it, if you agree with it, please copy
and paste it, please pass it on to friends, coworkers, family, post it on
blogs and even list serve’s if you can. Please send it to anyone who might
vote in Minnesota on Tuesday.

This is going to be a very close election. I’ve given most of the past 18
months of my life to it and I want to win. I would really appreciate it if
you would pass the message below on to your lists, and when you go and vote
on Tuesday, I’d really appreciate it if you would go down the ballot to the
Secretary of State’s race and vote for Mark Ritchie.

Thank you, peace and love,

James


When you vote on Tuesday (and you SHOULD vote!) after you get through
Senator and Governor and Congress you’ll see the Secretary of State’s
office.

The Secretary of State has a few responsibilities, the most important one is
being the chief elections officer for the state. That means they decide
what kind of voting machines we use, they run the voter registration system,
they’re the person in charge of counting votes, and so on.

Now obviously the problem here is that the person in charge of our elections
has their own political views and has to run for office themselves. So the
most important quality a Secretary of State can have is to be nonpartisan,
they should treat all voters and candidates equally, and should count votes
fairly.

Our current Secretary of State Mary Kiffmeyer doesn’t do that. She is
famous for bringing her political views into the office and using them to
help her party succeed. She’s been sued multiple times and the Minnesota
Supreme Court has had to tell her on multiple occasions to do her job right.
She is actually being sued right now and the Supreme Court will likely
have to hear a case on Monday.

Her biggest challenger is a man named Mark Ritchie. Mark has 20 years
experience in nonpartisan organizing, voter registration, election
protection, and electronic voting work. He has spent his life outside of
party politics and has instead focused on helping everyone register and
vote. For more information on him you can go to www.markritchie06.net.

For those of you who care about parties Mark is a Democrat.

When you vote on Tuesday please go down your ballot and vote for Mark
Ritchie in the Secretary of State’s race.

Voting information:
• Polls are open from 7am to 8pm
• You vote in your own neighborhood, your own precinct. For information on
where to vote go to www.dfl.org. If you scroll down a bit in the middle
you’ll see a place to enter your zip code and find your polling place.
• If you are 18 years old, a citizen of the United States, and have not had
your voting rights taken away then you can vote.
• If you are not registered to vote you can register at the polls on
Election Day. Click here
http://www.markritchie06.net/register/index.html#sameday for details on what
you need to bring to the polls to vote