Americans ought to be thinking a lot harder about their local, down-ballot races. This year, more than any other in recent memory, we got a bitter taste of the power of local officials to enable, and even promote, rioting and mayhem in America.
Many of us have watched aghast as mayors of blue cities like Portland, Seattle, Chicago, and New York turned a blind eye or even encouraged mob rule that resulted in wide-scale violence, vandalism, looting, injury, and, yes, murder. They have flatly rejected all offers by President Trump to bring it under control by calling in the National Guard. Let’s not forget that these mayors — along with the many other officials close to them — were elected locally.
Recall, it’s local elected prosecutors, district attorneys, state’s attorneys, and attorneys general that have the power to allow violent criminals to roam free after an arrest. We see this happening repeatedly in Democratic Party-run cities like Seattle and Portland where Antifa thugs caught on camera assaulting officers and citizens are immediately set free without bail.
Indeed, de facto presidential candidate Kamala Harris is all in favor of such things. In addition to rejecting your right to self-defense, Democrats also reject your right to any police protection – as we’ve seen with the Minneapolis City Council’s vote to “defund” (i.e., abolish) the police.
Offenders then return to the streets to keep rioting and assaulting others, and in the case of avowed “100 percent Antifa” member Michael Rienoehl, to hunt down and kill someone for being politically incorrect. Many of them are beneficiaries of George Soros’s district attorney project that funds their local campaigns. Soros also has a “Secretaries of State” Project to ensure that so-called progressives are in a position to certify election results, particularly in battleground states.
Other Down Ballot Offices
While the “up-ballot” races always get the press, down-ballot races prove time and again to have a huge impact on your personal life. If you think this through, up-ballot races are downstream from your down-ballot races. If your community is dominated by socialists running for the board of supervisors or town council, it’s a safe bet that your state will follow suit (if it hasn’t already). As more cities and states adopt lawless agendas, the U.S. Congress as well as the presidency are more at risk for promoting such lawlessness as well.
So, do you know who’s running for sheriff in your locality? Is it someone committed to enforcing equal justice under the law? Or is it a socialist intent on lawlessness and bringing perceived political opponents to kangaroo courts?
What about the office of clerk of the circuit court? Did you know that in most cases, the clerk of the circuit court is the person who signs off on a concealed-carry permit should you apply for one? If you elect one of the new breed of radical leftists, what’s to keep him or her from pondering an application for months or years on end? Exactly nothing.
In many jurisdictions, judges are elected by voters. Do you know who these folks are? Would they uphold the principles of the rule of law and the U.S. Constitution? These days, we can bet hundreds are running for office who have no intention of doing so.
What about the registrar of wills? Think of what a socialist would do in that office. They salivate at the prospect of seizing property and preventing you from leaving anything to your loved ones.
Consider the damage your school board members are capable of inflicting on the minds of children. Will they require your kids to be taught gender ideology, that they are neither boys nor girls? If they mandate critical race theory, they are inflicting a cultic form of coercive thought reform on children.
Local Officials Wield a Lot of Power Over Your Life
Look carefully at local officials who have direct power over your life. Have they gleefully used the pandemic to shutter small businesses, often permanently? Have they kept you in misery by locking down parks, and forcing masks on us so we cannot even breathe freely outdoors? Do they force your loved ones to die alone, then make laws that prevent your children from consoling you at the memorial service for your spouse?
Such disgraceful attitudes towards our common humanity trickle down from big cities to smaller jurisdictions. A mother watching her child’s football game from outdoor bleachers was recently tasered and arrested for not wearing a mask. This outrageous behavior happened in the town of Moscow, Idaho. Such things are enabled and happen due to local elected officials on every level. Voters — and, in effect, all the non-voters who stay home — make such things possible in the first place.
So, ask yourself: Will your local officials use their power to arrest and handcuff you for trying to escape a dangerous situation, as happened recently to the driver of a Prius trying to escape from a violent mob of BLM agitators in Los Angeles?
Will they attack and defame you for daring to defend your life as happened in the tragic case of Omaha bar owner Jake Gardner? Last month, Gardner committed suicide when local “justice” officials had him looking at life in prison because he defended himself from violent agitators who broke his windows and attacked his father before attacking him. He was condemned posthumously for having been a Trump supporter and therefore, according to a Nebraska state legislator who practically celebrated his suicide, a “white supremacist.” If you’d rather your local officials not do such things, then you should vote accordingly.
Learning Who’s Who and Ballotpedia
From my experience as a poll worker, I know a lot of folks come to their polling place on election day completely undecided and confused about down-ballot races. Most will vote straight “D” or “R,” but school board races are often marked as “non-partisan,” and today just about every school board in just about every large city or town is dominated by far-left members of the Democratic Party.
By talking face to face to the folks at the table set up by their political party at the local precinct, voters inevitably come looking for advice on school board, clerks, judges, and ballot questions — all down-ballot races. As Democrat political machines move to rid the nation of in-person voting sites, however, these opportunities are not as common.
Besides, they have used the pandemic to enforce isolation and social distancing, which reduces opportunities to engage constructively with people in public. Too often today voters must depend on word of mouth or social media that is increasingly censored and distorted by Big Tech.
Yet there are some resources available. If you have not yet received your ballot, there are a couple of places to get a view of what it will look like. Theoretically, local and state boards of elections websites should be a good place to find this information.
Many of those websites, however, are focused primarily on voter registration and procedures. Sometimes they are user-hostile for finding a sample ballot, or at least require going down a click-hole to find it. But here’s a site that can direct you to your local jurisdiction where you should be able to hunt down a sample ballot.
Alternatively, if you go to the upper left-hand corner of the Ballotpedia.org home page, just click on “What’s on your ballot,” and then fill in your street, city, and state. You can also click here for that sample ballot lookup tool. You’ll receive a list of candidates for every office you’re eligible to vote for, as well as any ballot questions or referenda.
At this point, the real homework begins. If you live in a jurisdiction that has local officials on the 2020 ballot this November, you owe it to yourself and your community to research them — well. Check out their webpages, consider their positions, who is endorsing them, and what organizations lend them support. Likewise, investigate the ballot questions and referenda.
When you find candidates you feel adhere to the rule of law and will uphold freedom and the U.S. Constitution, share your research! Tell trusted family, friends, and associates what you’ve learned — spread the word and get out the vote. They will be grateful for having the information, and you can make a difference where it will have the biggest impact: close to home.
