Central Minnesota Freedom Coalition Announcements
Hello again Patriots!
I would like to invite you to our next community group meeting on
Tuesday, September 17, 2024, at 7:00 pm at the Little Falls Township
Hall located at 15132 Gordon Circle, Little Falls, MN. Please join us
and bring other likeminded individuals with you.
The 2024 General Election is fast approaching with early voting starting
on Friday, September 20th already. One thing that needs to be brought
to everyone’s attention is that the Morrison County Auditor Ballot
Question is posted and reads as follows:
“Shall the Office of Morrison County Auditor/Treasurer become an
appointed position rather than elected at the expiration of the current
term? Yes, or No?”
More information on this can be found at the following links:
County Ballot Question Information (morrison.mn.us)
https://myballotmn.sos.mn.gov/QuestionDisplay.aspx?QuestionId=1809
As most of us are aware, we need to vote “No” on this question and we
must work diligently to inform our fellow voters to do the same. The
main reason to vote “No” is that the County Auditor/Treasurer oversees
our elections, our property taxes, and the financial operations of the
county to name just a few. If that position becomes an appointed one,
the County Auditor/Treasurer will no longer be accountable to the
residents of Morrison County in order to retain their position, meaning
they become accountable to the County Board of Commissioners ONLY.
If we allow this position to become appointed, when the people of
Morrison County have an issue with any of the responsibilities under the
Auditor/Treasurer’s umbrella, we would no longer have the ability to
vote out this person at the next election. We would need to pressure the
Morrison County Board into removing and replacing that individual. It
works the other way as well. If the Auditor/Treasurer acts against the
wishes of the County Board, the Board could simply remove and replace
that individual with someone who will align more with their ‘vision’ for
our county. This will lead to, and I believe this is already happening,
governments creating their budgets with all of their wishes included
and telling the Auditor to find the money to cover it. This will just
lead to even higher property taxes and any other taxes that they can
come up with to cover the tab.
Another thing to be made aware of that you will see on your ballot is a
Constitutional Amendment. There hasn’t been much hype about this, so I
encourage everyone to do your own research on this and vote accordingly.
This is just my opinion but if this passes, it will just give the state
government more money and authority to invade upon private property
owners and to influence local municipalities to curtail to their demands
regarding everything having to do with our water supply. We need more
local control and not expanded control of the state government and its
agencies regarding this issue.
Here is the link to the ballot question, followed by a couple of sources
for more information:
https://www.sos.mn.gov/elections-voting/whats-on-my-ballot/constitutional-amendments/
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/09/04/lottery-related-ballot-measure-awaits-minnesota-voters
https://www.minnpost.com/environment/2023/04/future-of-minnesota-environment-funding-state-lottery-could-be-on-your-ballot-in-2024/
To find out exactly what’s on your respective ballot, go to this link and fill out the requested information:
https://myballotmn.sos.mn.gov/
A very important election related event is also coming up quickly. The
Royalton Lions Club, Royalton Education Minnesota, and Royalton
Community Education will host a “Meet the Candidates” Forum at 7:00 pm,
on Monday, September 23, 2024, at the Royalton High School/Middle School
Cafetorium. Candidates who have been invited include those for Royalton
City Council, Royalton School Board, MN House of Representatives for
District 10B, and for Morrison County Commissioner District 3 (which
includes myself and Randy Winscher). This event is open to the public
and questions will be taken from those in attendance wishing to submit
one. This is a great opportunity to ask Commissioner Winscher any
questions you may have for him regarding the actions (or inactions) of
the County Board, as I believe this is the ONLY opportunity to do so as
the Morrison County Board meetings continue to not allow public comment.
Please join us this Tuesday for our next meeting as we intend to discuss
and plan for the upcoming General Election. We would like to coordinate
door-knocking and Get Out the Vote efforts for this very critical final
stretch leading up to November 5th.
Even if this doesn’t seem like something you’d be interested in, you can
still do your part every single day to help the “Get Out the Vote”
effort by simply asking the people that you interact with daily, whether
or not they intend to vote in this election. If they answer, “Yes,”
then great! Respond with a personalized “Thank you” and leave it at that
if you wish.
If the answer is, “No,” then politely ask them, “Why not?”
Some people may not even want to answer this question but those that do,
will commonly reply with, “It’s rigged,” “I don’t like the candidates,”
“My vote doesn’t matter,” “I really just don’t care,” “I don’t trust
the machines,” “If I don’t vote then I can say that I didn’t vote for
any of this,” or some variation of these.
Chances are that if you’re reading this, you already have multiple
reasons to encourage people to change their minds and make sure they
vote in this election. I would just like to add one which may be
impactful and that is, “By deciding not to vote this year, or in years
past, you are essentially giving your consent to be governed the way we
currently are. You’re willingly conceding the 1 tool that we still have
left to say, “Yea,” or “Nay,” to every level of our respective
governments.”
We need to have a serious increase in voter turnout this election. If
people need assistance in getting registered to vote or have other
election related questions, there are links and more info on the
Morrison County Auditor’s website at:
https://www.co.morrison.mn.us/219/Elections-Voting
I look forward to seeing you all very soon at one time or another over
the next couple of months during this very critical time in our
country’s history. We must remain strong and vigilant!
Sincerely,
Jeremy J. Pekula, Central Minnesota Freedom Coalition Leader