Kiffmeyer's office disses non-metro areas
--posted by Tony Garcia on 11/10/2005
The election for 2005 was 2 days ago. In hoping to find out how things went throughout the state I checked out the Secretary of State's website to find results. If you followed the link you can see that the only elections that were reported at the Sec of State's site are those within the 7-county area.
So I called them to find out where those results are. The answer: "We are not required to carry those in odd year elections."
Why not do that voluntarily to provide a service for the entire state or at least provide links to the varioud localities websites that provide those results?
The answer: "We are not required by statute to do that."
It seems that the only way the Secretary of State's office will do something is NOT for service, but from requirement. Remember the childish tantrum that the Secretary's office threw when Jesse cut funding to the executive & legislative branches? They cut their hours of operation. That meant that for businesses needing to conduct business with the state of Minnesota's Secretary of State they had to do so within a very narrow time frame. (My memory is failing me as to what the reduced hours were...I think something like 9AM to 1PM.)
So, what I have learned over the years with this Secretary of State is that there is not the ability to conduct business efficiently and that there is not a drive in the office to SERVE Minnesotans but to provide only the "services" as required. The bare minimum...
...and the hell with the rest of the state.
Kiffmeyer lost the support of my wife a while ago (and she lobbies against Kiffmeyer strongly). Today Kiffmeyer permanently lost my support regardless of her office. I will vote for whomever runs against her in the primaries and likely her main opponent in the generals too. This piles on top of her no-showing for two confirmed interviews on our show.
Inefficiency, unprofessionalism and unreliability is all that comes to mind when I think of Mary Kiffmeyer's office.
Sorry, party people.
********** UPDATE **********
Marty said that Kiffmeyer wants to go on our radio show to defend herself from my charge that her office is not going above and beyond. We'll see...we have had 2 interviews with Kiffmeyer that were confirmed on the Friday prior to her scheduled appearance and she no-showed on both of those. The third time Marty scheduled her she actually did appear. Let's see if she can bring her confirmed appearance rate to 50%.
Of course, when someone makes a valid complaint (whether you agree with the complaint it is a valid issue) it is funny how poking the person in the eye gets a reaction.
Then again...maybe I should just do to her what she has done to our show more often than not: "Oh, sorry, was that this week."
********** UPDATE **********
10:22 PM 11/12/05
Marty sent just sent an e-mail asking that I remove reference to Kiffmeyer coming on the show tomorrow. I will not remove it...but I will note that there was miscommunication from her office (again) about her availability. Benefit of the doubt for her...gone. Besides, that still leaves her record for following through on her commitments at 1 fulfilled commitment out of 3 confirmations.
********** UPDATE **********
According to a unconfirmed report heard by Andy Aplikowski the Sec of State's office is looking into providing at least links to out-state election results on odd years. I hope this is true. After all, to warrant continuing a career in administrative elected office you need to go above an beyond in your service. And please don't give this crap about 'increase in voter turn-out'. The increase in voter turn out had more to do with very charged races both nationally and state-wide during, to your fortune, your tenure. It is pure misguided arrogance to believe that the MN Sec of State had anything to do with Bush/Gore in 2000 or the 2002 increase of interest because of 9/11 & Iraq or Bush/Kerry in 2004. These things increased the turn out...not an office that focuses on doing the absolute minimum (and arguably does things for strict partisan gain).
********** UPDATE ********** 11/30/05
Welcome to the readers of Lloydletta's Nooz and Comments.
12 Comments:
According to the Secretary of State Office, ALL counties were asked to participate without limit. The issue is not the Secretary of State Office, but counties who choose not to participate. You are dissing the wrong office. Secretary Kiffmeyer is the one who is trying to get EVERYONE in the whole state to participate!!! The law doesn't require the locals to use this local reporting service of the office of Secretary of State Kiffmeyer...that is the issue. They are the ones who need to choose to use it. Go write about all the counties who made that choice!
Below is the quote from the Secretary of State web site election results front page. Did you read this first? Note the 3 "non-metro" counties who did choose to participate...Becker, Big Stone and Hubbard. Take a little more time to get your facts straight.
"Welcome to City and School District Election Results Reporting!
The Office of the Secretary of State is reporting election results for selected local elections held November 8, 2005 as part of its pilot to advance local election information and results reporting. Minnesota is among the first states to pilot real-time election results reporting to the precinct level for cities and school districts. Results are reported only for selected questions and offices in participating cities and school districts, and do not include results for all elections being held in Minnesota on November 8, 2005. Results are reported as they are entered by participating counties on election night, November 8, and on November 9, 2005. The Office of the Secretary of State thanks Anoka, Dakota, Becker, Big Stone, Hubbard, Ramsey, and Washington Counties, and the City of Minneapolis for their participation in this pilot."
FYI, SFV did NOT pass out Bush buttons in 2004. I, as president of Students for Bush, did. SFV is a Non-Partisan organization that had a number of CP, GOP, DFL and apathetic members.
Personally, I don't think you should have her on the radio show. Screw that. It's your show. If she can't show up when you get a confirmation from her scheduler during the times YOU would like to discuss an issue (and you end up looking like an ass on the radio saying "next segment, Mary Kiffmeyer" and she never shows) why do her the favor? If I remember right, you even covered nicely for her ("must have been some miscommunication")...when you knew for a fact that her scheduler (or Mary) blew you off. If I remember right, the topics weren't even controversial, just asking about elections. Now she expects YOU to do HER a favor and let her explain HER side? Tell her to get her own radio show! I agree with the above commenter, I think she'll be out of office come next election.
Marty - when you are President of SFV, how are we supposed to distinguish what hat you are wearing when you pass out buttons? Take for example, the Hatch Act (does not allow certain federal government and military persons to work political campaigns). The reason the Hatch Act was established was because if someone works for the CIA or is the Sherrif of Hennepin County, and they are out supporting Clinton, people cannot diferenciate between the PERSON and their JOB. Those are one in the same. If you were the president of SFV, and you were handing out buttons for Bush, I'd say that it is very easy to conclude that SFV supports Bush.
Madam Secretary (at least I assume it is you since your anonymous comment coincides with the Secretary of State's home IP address hitting this blog),
I understand your office is not required to collect the odd-year results. I understand the localities are not required to forward the results.
My issue (relating to the results) is that your office, supposedly a service to the state's residents, did not provide links to the localities results at the bare minimum of service.
I noticed that you did not address the other issues which demonstrate an inability to actually run an office.
Marty,
The cross membership of conservative groups makes it impossible to know what group you personally were acting on behalf of while passing out buttons. The point remains that ONE conservative group took it upon themselves to run with an excellent idea: passing out buttons for free. The remainder of the party was too obtuse to listen to the impact of that gesture. Kudos to you for understanding how important the investment of purchasing buttons to give out for free actually was.
BTW, I have realized that there is not enough time on tomorrow's show for Kiffmeyer's defense. Perhaps next week.
I was not president of SFV in 2004. And I was not being paid to be a sheriff or a member of the CIA or any other government agency. I was a private citizen, and as a private citizen I supported Bush. As a private citizen I attend a church, and as a private citizen I'm a member of several non-profits. That doesn't mean my church ipso facto supports Bush. That's idiocy.
Plenty of liberals are leaders of non-partisan non-profits and are also huge advocates, volunteers, and donors for the Democratic Party. That's a right in this country.
But IRS laws are very clear, 501c3 non-profits cannot support candidates, and SFV never broke that law. SFV resources were never used to support a partisan group or candidate.
and Kiffmeyer will get her defense, if the subject is brought up.
She's not worth wasting my time on the air about this week. There are people who fulfill their commitments coming on instead.
Forgive me for giving you any credit. What the hell set that large chip on your shoulder? The fact that I have an issue about how poorly I think the SoS office is being run? The fact that I think the party hacks of the GOP are of the same cloth of the DFL hacks? Because I called Doug of Bogus Gold to the carpet for his inconsistencies in philosophical application?
WTF is under your skin?
Relax, I thought you were making a commentary on the situation by saying "defense" as if there was time for the offense but not defense. Issue dropped.
Please take down my email.
Mary Kiffmeyer did not ask to be on the radio show this afternoon as she is in an airplane this afternoon.
Posted by James Kiffmeyer at the request of Mary Kiffmeyer.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Marty is responsible for the information...that she wants to defend herself.
Frankly, I will not have her on for any reason. She has missed two prior interviews and I see no reason to trust her anymore.
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