#local elections 2023

[superbeans89]

So yeah, the tories have taken an absolute hammering in the local elections. Finally, something to celebrate this weekend.

[froggyfroo]

It's local election day in England, so this is your friendly reminder make sure you have a valid photo ID before you go out to vote today! If you don't have one, you can apply for an Emergency Proxy Vote on the Electoral Commission's website up until 5pm today.

[seachranaidhe]

'PUP leader Billy Hutchinson has lost his seat on Belfast city council the people of east Belfast have overwhelminly rejected him and his policies and politics in east Belfast.'.

http://seachranaidhe-irishandproud.blogspot.com/2023/05/pup-leader-billy-hutchinson-has-lost.html

[insidecroydon]

Greens, residents and LibDems put squeeze on Tory Surrey

Follow the yellow brick road: political editor WALTER CRONXITE takes a flight of fancy over the new political map of south-east England after last week’s local elections, which have given the LibDems much encouragement Pathway to success?: the LibDems are targeting Tory ministers’ seats in Surrey after last week’s results The fields of Surrey, Sussex and Kent are awash in vibrant green and yellow…

[whenweallvote]

Just some of last night’s historic wins 🥳

[tomorrowusa]

Tuesday is Election Day in many parts of the US.

VOTE! 🗳 🇺🇸

A number of sites provide you with an opportunity to see who is on your ballot and what issues are being contested. They don't include an actual image of your ballot but they do let you know what's on it.

VOTE411 Voter Guide

Sample Ballot Lookup - Ballotpedia

Vote Informed on the Entire Ballot - BallotReady

Of course check the site of your local election authority. In some places it's the county clerk and in others it's a board of elections. The elections mentioned in this post are a small number of those around the US on November 7th.

Because of the GOP SCOTUS overturning of Roe v. Wade, state legislatures now determine whether a state supports reproductive freedom or not. State governments have been badly neglected by liberals for decades — and that situation needs to end.

Both chambers of the state legislature in Virginia are up for election on Tuesday. If both fall under Republican control then the state will join the rest of the South in restricting abortion.

Virginia is not the only state having elections for its state officials.

STATES HOLDING ELECTIONS FOR STATE LEGISLATURE

Virginia

New Jersey

Mississippi

Louisiana

STATES HOLDING ELECTIONS FOR GOVERNOR

Kentucky

Louisiana

Mississippi

There are numerous municipal elections, special elections, ballot measures, and constitutional amendments to be decided on Tuesday.

The biggie is the Ohio constitutional amendment on reproductive freedom. Voters in Ohio have the opportunity to overturn the gerrymandered Ohio Republican legislature's ban on abortion. Vote YES on Ohio Issue 1.

A very local but important contest is the special legislative election in New Hampshire to fill a vacancy in Hillsborough County District 3 (in the Nashua area). Right now Republicans have a one seat advantage in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. If Democrat Paige Beauchemin wins this seat then Republicans will be forced to share power with Democrats in the chamber.

Good candidates for federal office often emerge from state and local government. Before he was elected to the US Senate in 2004, Barack Obama served several terms in the Illinois legislature.

There is no such thing as an unimportant election.

[etaleah]

Don’t Skip Election Day in 2023

It’s not a presidential or midterm year, but there are still a lot of important elections happening within the next month and it is still crucial that you vote in them. Many of these are local elections that can most directly impact your life and community. The people on the ballot this year are your mayors, city council members, and school board members. Some ballots will also have proposals for you to vote on, like whether you’re okay with raising taxes by 0.4% to pay for road repairs or something of that nature.

School boards are especially important in the era of unprecedented book bans. Please, if you value the freedom to read, if you value representation, diversity in literature, etc., show up to your local election. The absolute best tool we have to fight book bans is to make sure they don’t happen in the first place, and who is on the school board can be the deciding factor in whether a book gets removed. Check who’s running in your district to make sure the position goes to someone reasonable and not a Moms for Liberty bigot. Because I have no doubt that some of those will be running and they are banking on people not showing up or not knowing that an election is happening. Turnout for local elections is awful and it’s a big part of why there’s been so little change.

Mayors and city council members matter too. They have the power over things like rent control, basic income, universal broadband, public transit, local infrastructure, city budgets, libraries, parks, policing, disaster relief, and whether Confederate statues get removed. They can affect your life in ways that governors and congresspeople and even presidents can’t.

Local elections can be where your vote matters the most. There’s no electoral college to mess it up, and the amount of people who can vote in each one is so small that every vote really does count.

Early voting is going to start happening in a few weeks. If you haven’t registered, don’t know your status, don’t know the dates or your polling place or what’s required to vote, or if you don’t know what’s on your ballot, now is the time to find out. Look up your sample ballot and research each candidate to see where they stand on the issues.

Election Day in 2023 is every bit as important and high-stakes as Election Day in 2022 and 2024. And we all need to treat it that way.

[thebrokenkindle]

Friendly reminder to my fellow UK folks that you need some form of photo ID to vote in person at this year's local elections!

You can apply for a Voter ID Certificate if you don't have any photo ID, and you can use out of date photo ID as long as it still looks like you. You can also use certain concessionary bus passes (usually an older person's travel card).

More info here:

[trendynewsnow]

Election Discontent in Walker, Michigan: A Voter's Perspective

In the Heart of Walker, Michigan Cindy Jager found herself as the sole employee on shift in a quaint variety store that seemed to burst at the seams with an eclectic mix of hardware, party supplies, and an abundance of faux pumpkins. As I arrived, I found her diligently organizing cleaning products on a cluttered shelf at the back of the shop, nestled in the bustling city of Walker,…

[anistarrose]

Please don't tune out when you get to the non-partisan section of your ballot this November. First off, where state Supreme Court justices are elected, Republicans are trying their darndest to elect candidates who will destroy reproductive freedom, gut voting rights, and do everything in their power to give "contested" elections to Republicans. Contrast Wisconsin electing a justice in 2023 who helped rule two partisan gerrymanders unconstitutional, versus North Carolina electing a conservative majority in 2022, who upheld a racist voter ID law and a partisan gerrymander that liberal justices had previously struck down both of.

Second, local judicial offices will make infinitely more of an impact on your community than a divided state or federal legislature will. District and circuit courts, especially, are where criminalization of homelessness and poverty play out, and where electing a progressive judge with a commitment to criminal justice reform can make an immediate difference in people's lives.

It's a premier example of buying people time, and doing profound-short-term good, while we work to eventually change the system. You might not think there will be any such progressive justices running in your district, but you won't know unless you do your research. (More on "research" in a moment.)

The candidates you elect to your non-partisan city council will determine whether those laws criminalizing homelessness get passed, how many blank checks the police get to surveil and oppress, and whether lifesaving harm reduction programs, like needle exchanges and even fentanyl test strips, are legal in your municipality. Your non-partisan school board might need your vote to fend off Moms for Liberty candidates and their ilk, who want to ban every book with a queer person or acknowledgement of racism in it.

Of course, this begs the question — if these candidates are non-partisan, and often hyper-local, then how do I research them? There's so much less information and press about them, so how do I make an informed decision?

I'm not an expert, myself. But I do think/hope I have enough tips to consist of a useful conclusion to this post:

Plan ahead. If you vote in person, figure out what's on your ballot before you show up and get jumpscared by names you don't know. Find out what's on your ballot beforehand, and bring notes with you when you vote. Your city website should have a sample ballot, and if they drop the ball, go to Ballotpedia.

Ballotpedia in general, speaking of which. Candidates often answer Ballotpedia's interviews, and if you're lucky, you'll also get all the dirt on who's donating to their campaign.

Check endorsements. Usually candidates are very vocal about these on their websites. If local/state progressive leaders and a couple unions (not counting police unions lol) are endorsing a candidate, then that's not the end of my personal research process per se, but it usually speeds things up.

Check the back of the ballot. That's where non-partisan races usually bleed over to. This is the other reason why notes are helpful, because they can confirm you're not missing anything.

I've seen some misconceptions in the reblogs, so an addendum to my point about bringing notes on the candidates: I strongly suggest making those notes a physical list that you bring polling place with you. Many states do allow phones at the polling place, but several states explicitly don't — Nevada, Maryland, and Texas all ban phones, and that may not be an exhaustive list. There may also be states that allow individual city clerks to set policies.

You should also pause and think before you take a photo of your ballot, because even some states that don't ban phones still ban ballot photographs. But whether it's a photo, or just having your phone in general — in an environment as high-risk for voter suppression as the current one, you don't want even a little bit of ambiguity about your conduct. Physical notes are your friends.

[infosurbaines]

RDC/ Élections législatives et locales : instruction au Conseil d’Etat de 39 dossiers sur les 82 candidats invalidés

Le Conseil d’État a instruit, mercredi 10 janvier, 39 affaires sur l’annulation des suffrages et scrutins de 82 candidats députés aux législatives et locales du 20 décembre dernier. Sur ces 82, seize requérants ont saisi le juge de référé-liberté contre la CENI afin d’être rétablis dans leurs droits et l’accusent d’avoir violé le droit de la défense. Les requérants accusent cette institution…

[seachranaidhe]

The Irish language in the new British Passport - but don't tell the TUV!

I love the rose, daffodil, shamrock and thistle on the back to represent all the parts of the UK.https://twitter.com/ErvineLinda/status/1658935176422891522?s=20 The Irish language in the new British Passport. I love the rose, daffodil, shamrock and thistle on the back to represent all the parts of the UK. pic.twitter.com/NJyGk27cie— Linda Ervine MBE (@ErvineLinda) May 17, 2023

[carlocarrasco]

3-week transition period for incoming barangay and SK officials set by DILG

With the Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) over and most winning candidates already proclaimed by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) set a transition period of three weeks for the incoming barangay and SK officials, according to a Manila Bulletin news report. To put things in perspective, posted below is an excerpt…

[atimelesschild]

[diasporagreenspace]

Miss-Lou Voter Registration Deadlines Approaching

Do your duty. Cast your vote.

From Vote411.org and The League Of Women Voters Education Fund 1 The states elect the President and Vice President through The Electoral College process, but… state and local elections are won by the tallying individual votes! Some of the most common state and local election types include: primary elections, general elections, special elections, and municipal elections. The Mississippi…