THE U.S. SENATE RECOUNT
Court decision just adds to arguments for IRV
This year I acted as an election judge at a precinct other than my own, so I had to vote absentee. My thanks to the Minneapolis election officials who processed my mailed-in ballot correctly and got it to my precinct, where it was counted.
I am flummoxed by the decision by the bare majority of those Minnesota Supreme Court justices who heard the case about counting the incorrectly rejected absentee ballots. It not only defies logic that they would insert the partisan campaigns into deciding whether to count all validly cast votes; it defies our democracy. I am not surprised that their reasoning is unconvincing, since I can't imagine how to justify their choice. I hope they feel the appropriate amount of shame in their decision.
This is also an appropriate moment to thank former Sen. Dave Durenberger and others who have written on these pages in support of instant runoff voting. I am more convinced than ever that the best result of the IRV system would be that a candidate's strategy has to include being an acceptable second choice for voters. What seems clear after having just suffered through this Senate campaign is that many voters ended up hard-pressed to find one acceptable, let alone two. It would be great not to have to put up with that again.
ROBERT FRAME, MINNEAPOLIS
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Now that Al Franken has a lead in the recount, I would like to call on Norm Coleman to take the advice he gave Al Franken on the day after the election -- do the right thing for the citizens of Minnesota and concede the election. As the old saying goes, "What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander."
RICHARD GUSTAFSON, STILLWATER
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To Minnesota's next U.S. senator: Remember, more than 50 percent of those who voted voted for someone else!
PAUL KELLY, MINNEAPOLIS
WILDLIFE REFUGES
Support the plan to employ Americans
The Friends of Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge have asked Sens. Norm Coleman and Amy Klobuchar and Reps. Michele Bachmann and Jim Oberstar to support a plan to put 20,000 Americans to work at national wildlife refuges all across the country as part of an economic recovery package. This would include our own Sherburne NWR.
Green Jobs for Refuges would create nearly 20,000 green jobs on national wildlife refuges in all 50 states within 90 days and would help a beleaguered national wildlife refuge system, which receives just 57 percent of necessary funding and has a $3.5 billion backlog of high-priority projects. The refuge job-creation plan would combat invasive species and restore native habitat; improve energy efficiencies; provide construction jobs for new LEED-certified structures; and invest in renewable energy such as solar panels.
Projects that could be undertaken at our refuge include construction of the proposed visitor center -- the Discovery Center -- a "green" building that would serve as a gateway to the refuge, its wildlife and habitats. People of all ages would benefit, but in particular Discovery Center programs would focus on helping families to connect kids and nature through quality environmental interpretation, education programs and activities. After construction is complete, the Discovery Center would continue to have a significant impact on our area's economy by attracting thousands of new visitors from across our state and nation each year.
DAVID MARTIN, CLEAR LAKE, MINN.;
PAST PRESIDENT, FRIENDS OF SHERBURNE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
Rising property taxes
California put its foot down; we could, too
The Dec. 21 article "Lakeshore land values put owners in tax bind" quoted Tom May, tax assessor for Hennepin County, as saying, "Homeowners have to decide what's important to them." This in response to a story discussing how seniors are losing their homes because they cannot afford their property taxes.
This is the exact situation 30 years ago in California when Howard Jarvis introduced Proposition 13, limiting the rate of tax increase to 2 percent per year. Think it cannot happen here? It passed by over a 60 percent margin in liberal California. People were fed up.
It is time government has to decide what's important, not the seniors. "Let them eat cake" Ms. Antoinette replied after hearing her subjects were starving for lack of bread. Perhaps Mr. May should study some French history.
WADE YARBROUGH, APPLE VALLEY
STEM CELL RESEARCH
Let Obama relax rules, modernize the work
As a Minnesota member of the Student Society for Stem Cell Research, I'm eagerly anticipating action by President-elect Barack Obama on the issue of embryonic stem cells.
Federally funded stem cell research is currently limited to stem cells created before August 2001. As we approach 2009, imagine the frustration of working on an eight-year-old computer -- it's similar to what federally funded researchers forced to work with stem cells from 2001 experience. It's time to give researchers the tools and resources necessary to develop cures.
MATT HANZLIK, MINNEAPOLIS
