Posts by Molly Priesmeyer

Last night Omar Jamal, head of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, told KSTP news that as many as 500 people were either persuaded or misled to vote for Al Franken at the Brian Coyle Center on Tuesday. The report raises serious questions about Jamal’s claims: Only two days ago Jamal told the same news station that complaints were coming from voters who said translators were persuading people to vote for Franken and Norm Coleman. He claimed that Franken and Coleman workers were, according to KSTP, trying to illegally influence a “few dozen” Somali voters. Suddenly that number has leapt to 500, and Jamal now says they were all persuaded to vote for Franken.

What’s more, though a Coleman staffer was on hand all day, Jamal now dismisses complaints that translators were influencing people to vote for Coleman and tells a reporter from M’shale that they “were lying.”

The Minnesota Secretary of State’s office says that if Coleman staffer Mahoumad Wardere was on site at Brian Coyle Center for most of the afternoon that Minnesota election laws were “potentially” broken. According to Beth Fraser, director of governmental affairs at the Secretary of State’s office, an interpreter can only be inside a polling place if they are assisting a specific voter. They cannot remain onsite, as we reported Wardere did, acting as a go-to interpreter.

(Updated at 8:19 p.m.) Today I was interviewed by WCCO’s Esme Murphy about my story regarding voter allegations of illegal activity and intimidation at Brian Coyle Center yesterday. The main issue, as we reported yesterday, was that a Coleman campaign staffer named Mahamoud Wardere was on hand nearly the entire day, at least from 11:00 a.m. till past 3:00 p.m., acting as an interpreter and/or challenger. And a handful of voters–at least three to me and two to an election observer–complained that interpreters were telling people to vote for Norm Coleman.

At the end of her report, Murphy noted that Norm Coleman’s campaign manager, Cullen Sheehan, said Wardere did nothing wrong. He was only there to act as an interpreter, Sheehan said, and he had a “Republican attorney with him at all times.”

Yet that’s not the entire story.

By far the most exuberant election party of the night was along Cedar Avenue, right in the middle of the street. People from the Somali community, the Nomad Pub, and the nearby Bedlam theater led groups of little kids, young adults, immigrants and older folks–more than 250 people in all–in chants and dances.

CNN goes Star Wars on Election Night with a “hologram” reporter calling in from Chicago, and apparently the future. Thanks to Talking Points Memo for posting the video with Jedi-like speed. It caused Tweeters from all over to twitter and giggle.

Earlier today, three voters of Somali origin at the Brian Coyle Center in Minneapolis told me — and two told an election observer — that a translator working there was instructing people to vote for Sen. Norm Coleman.

In addition, the presence of a Coleman staffer who says he came to volunteer his services as a GOP challenger or translator also stirred controversy between election judges and challengers.

The Minnesota Independent wants to hear your Election Day stories! Did you witness long lines? Voter challenges? A remarkable tale from a polling place? DROP US A COMMENT BELOW. Or let us know in other ways: Email us your photos or stories, send us a Tweet or give us a ring: 612.245.1434. Help us cover this historic election and your story may appear at the Minnesota Independent, on our Twitter feed or our Flickr site.

Along streets in South Minneapolis, Barack Obama supporters are finding creative ways to show their support. They’re creating handmade signs using Shepard Fairey-inspired stencils, painting their own Obama logos, and even using Obama t-shirts as yard signs that dance in the summer-like wind.

Entire blocks are dotted with Obama signs, a show of the south side’s true-blue colors. But most interesting are the grassroots, artful lengths voters are going to in this election to campaign for Barack Obama and encourage others to vote. More pics inside.

Holding handmade signs inscribed with things such as purple scribbles, “dinosaurs for Obama,” and “vote for these tiny futures” a group of seriously vociferous elementary-school-aged kids marched down 38th Street in South Minneapolis early this evening.
They probably won’t be able to vote till 2020 when, according to NewsOfFuture.com, the first hotel opens on the moon, [...]

These days, putting your stock in stocks is like placing bets on betters. The stock market’s shaky ground has been more like an earthquake as of late. Yet much like the speculation that fuels the stock market, the prediction market fuels Intrade, a “trading service” where members trade directly with each other based on real, [...]