https://twitter.com/ChudsOfTikTok/status/1705786177394008182

I read with alarm that the chair of the Ottawa County Commission, Joe Moss, deferred action on approving funding requested by our county election official, Justin Roebuck, to implement early voting requirements that were overwhelmingly passed by the citizens of Michigan last November via proposal 2022-2.

The early voting plan that the BOC failed to act upon was created and supported by all municipalities in the county and has a tight deadline for implementation. Most alarmingly, Mr. Moss and Vice Chair Sylvia Rhodea apparently suggested alterations to the proposal to include public live-streaming of drop boxes and early voting sites.

I would consider these suggestions to be voter harassment and intimidation, not to mention the personal safety risks of live-streaming people who may be approaching drop boxes late at night. In addition to early voting requirements, Proposal 2022-2 included a prohibition against "harassing, intimidating or threatening conduct" and provides for individuals to bring actions for relief in the county circuit court.



https://www.hollandsentinel.com/story/opinion/letters/2023/09/24/letter-to-the-editor-ottawa-impact-needs-to-keep-hands-off-our-elections/70930672007/

Ottawa County

Four positions on city council, plus the mayorship, are up for election in the city of Holland. Nathan Bocks, incumbent mayor, is seeking election for the third time against newcomer Larry Shattuck. The winner will serve a two-year term.


Allegan County

Four seats on the Fennville City Commission are up for election, but no names will appear on the ballot thanks to rejected petitions and affidavits of identity. As of Friday, Sept. 22, three candidates, all of which initially filed to be on the ballot, had filed as write-ins for four-year terms.




https://www.hollandsentinel.com/story/news/politics/elections/local/2023/09/24/heres-whats-on-the-ballot-in-ottawa-allegan-counties-in-november/70917841007/

BERLIN -- The German city of Nordhausen is best known as the location of the former Nazi concentration camp Mittelbau-Dora.

On Sunday, a mayoral election could again put the focus on the municipality of 42,000 people if a far-right candidate wins the vote.

Joerg Prophet, a candidate from the populist far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, is the frontrunner in Sunday’s mayoral runoff vote. Earlier in September, Prophet won 42.1% of the vote in the first round of the election and now faces off against independent candidate Kai Buchmann.

Sunday's election underscores recent gains nationally for the AfD and the increasing influence it has on the political discussion in Germany. It also raises concerns about the normalization of far-right rhetoric in places like Nordhausen, drawing criticism from Holocaust survivors and those who work to combat discrimination.





https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/mayoral-race-small-city-highlights-rise-germanys-afd-103442775

Shortly before Gov. Roy Cooper, a North Carolina Democrat, began his first term in 2017, his rivals in the Republican-controlled legislature voted to strip the position of key powers, including the governor’s longstanding authority to appoint majorities to the state election board and local election boards in all 100 counties. After the state Supreme Court ruled that move illegal, the lawmakers put the idea on the ballot, but the state’s voters shot that down, too.

Now, seven years after their first try, the legislators appear on the verge of getting what they have long sought.

On Wednesday, the State House of Representatives followed the State Senate in passing legislation that would put the legislature in charge of all election board appointments. It would also change the number of positions on each board to split seats equally between Republican and Democratic members, eliminating the extra seat — controlled by the governor — that had served as a tiebreaker in disputes.

Under the newly passed bill, ties in local election boards would be addressed by the State Board of Elections — which, under the bill, would also have an equal number of members from each party.




https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/24/us/north-carolina-elections-general-assembly.html

First, and most importantly, find more candidates. Currently there are seven Democrats in the state House and four in the state Senate. There are none in any of the statewide offices......

Second, no more whining about “one-party rule.” Republicans earned the super majorities in the House and Senate and filled every other statewide elected office the old-fashioned way, by offering candidates for office. Complaining about their majorities makes Democrats sound weak and highlights their past failures to find enough candidates to fill out a ballot.

Third, candidacy for office has to be a long-term deal. No more one and dones, especially at the top of the ticket. Granted South Dakota is a small state, but it’s hard to build name recognition when there’s a rotating list of candidates at the top of the ballot. Sure, losing is tough. But quitting after one try won’t build name recognition, create trust or help with fundraising.

Fourth, pick an identity and stick with it. Stop anyone on the street these days and they’d be hard-pressed to tell you what the South Dakota Democratic Party stands for. I’ve heard Democratic leaders in this state say that they don’t like being lumped in with Schumer, Pelosi and the Washington crowd. They say that their values are different. To build an identity, Democrats in this state must prove that they are striving to help working families....

Fifth, stop the internal bickering. The next time the Democratic Party is in the news it should be to tout the quality of the many candidates it has running for election in the Legislature. There’s not much time left to make that happen. As the new chairman, Merrill has his work cut out for him. No one expects the party to be rejuvenated overnight, but if Merrill can be successful, it will be a positive step for governance and politics in South Dakota.




https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/little-advice-next-leader-south-dakotas-democrats

https://twitter.com/NebraskaMegan/status/1705595051756138523

1. Ohio voters turned out in huge numbers to reject the Republicans' attempt to rig the state amendment process.

2. Voters in a small NY town showed up ON A SATURDAY to defeat a GOP-led drive to change the way they are represented on the Town Board.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100218297547


Are progressive voters and independents getting wise and blocking Republican democracy tampering at every opportunity?

The legal action is the first of its kind after a supreme court ruling in June affirmed federal protections enshrined by the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement, against racial discrimination in voting laws. It is being closely watched nationally as a vital test case.

At stake is whether Black and other minority voters can continue to rely on the Voting Rights Act amid a rash of Republican racial gerrymandering sweeping the country. Has the legislation already been eroded beyond usefulness?

The lawsuit challenges new electoral maps that have been introduced by the Republicans who control Galveston county – the three Republican commissioners and a fellow Republican county judge. Tied to the 2020 census, their new maps reshape Holmes’s majority-minority district out of existence.

Under their redistricting plan, the district turns from having 58% of voters who are African American and Latino, into a majority-white entity with only 28% Black and Latino voters. Galveston county would lose its lone district, known as Precinct 3, which for more than three decades has given minority voters, who overwhelmingly lean Democratic, the ability to elect a representative of their choice.



https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/23/voting-rights-galveston-island-texas-race

It almost seems sometimes like we are living in some dystopian science fiction world where women are more like breeding stock than human. Last week came the announcement that the anti-abortion group has a new weapon in their forced birth artillery. Poland announced that they can now detect whether a woman has taken any miscarriage drugs (Mifepristone and mifeprostol) if said woman has had a miscarriage.

The website Jezebel reported on this recently. The mind boggles at what this means for women. While some people may think that living in a “blue“ state may shield them from such consequences, remember that only a few votes often separates an abortion friendly state from an abortion repressive state.





https://blogforiowa.com/2023/09/23/abortion-foes-get-powerful-new-weapon-to-use-against-women/