Election 2023: Sample Ballot / Index of Posts

Hello to a bunch of people looking up this site on their phone from a voting booth! Here are links to (hopefully) all my posts about this year’s races. (If you scroll and don’t find what you want, try a search, but remember, I only write about races that appear on the ballot in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Here is my new post about researching a race from the voting booth, though, if you’re looking at this from elsewhere, and here is a set of Google Docs put together by someone else for school board races statewide — she tells you who’s endorsed by the teacher’s union vs who’s endorsed by the MN Parents Alliance, a hair-raisingly right-wing group.)

MINNEAPOLIS

Minneapolis has a City Council race this year but no school board race. There will be another round of citywide races (for City Council and Mayor) in 2025, when everyone will run for a four-year term.

WARD 1

Elliott Payne

WARD 2

Robin Wonsley

(No one else will appear on the ballot but there are a couple of write-in candidates campaigning actively enough to make it worth showing up to vote for Robin.)

WARD 3

Marcus Mills

WARD 4

Marvina Haynes, I guess, or maybe whichever Ward 4 friend doesn’t object to being my write-in protest vote of a lack of better candidates.

WARD 5

Jeremiah Ellison

WARD 6

Kayseh Magan

WARD 7

Katie Cashman

WARD 8

Soren Stevenson

WARD 9

Jason Chavez

WARD 10

Aisha Chughtai

WARD 11

I would write in my cat before voting for either candidate on the ballot.

WARD 12

Aurin Chowdhury

WARD 13

  1. Write in my cat.
  2. Linea Palmisano I GUESS or maybe I’d write in one of my other cats.

More info on Ward 13 here.

SAINT PAUL

Saint Paul has a City Council race on the ballot (four-year terms, because our City Council and Mayor aren’t in sync) and a citywide School Board race (choose four).

Ward 1

  1. Omar Syed
  2. Anika Bowie
  3. Suz Woehrle

More info on Ward 1 here.

Ward 2

Rebecca Noecker

Ward 3

  1. Saura Jost
  2. Isaac Russell
  3. Troy Barksdale

More info on Ward 3 here.

Ward 4

Mitra Jalali

Ward 5

  1. Hwa Jeong Kim
  2. Nate Nins
  3. David Greenwood-Sanchez

More info on Ward 5 here.

Ward 6

Nelsie Yang

Ward 7

  1. Cheniqua Johnson
  2. Pa Der Vang

More info on Ward 7 here.

Saint Paul School Board

Pick four (not ranked choice). I am probably voting for Carlo Franco, Zuki Ellis, Chauntyll Allen, and Yusef Carillo, but Erica Valliant is also a strong choice. More info on that race here.

Saint Paul City Question 1

A grumpy Yes vote.


I have a book coming out this fall, in November! Liberty’s Daughter is near-future SF about a teenage girl on a libertarian seastead. A lot of it was originally published as short fiction in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. You can pre-order it in either book or ebook format from whatever you like. ETA 11/7: Also! You can pre-order it directly from local bookstore Uncle Hugo’s and get a signed copy. And new today, you can read my short story (set in Minneapolis), The Year Without Sunshine, for free on Uncanny Magazine, if you’d like.

I do not have a Patreon or Ko-Fi, but I get a lot of satisfaction by pointing people at fundraiser that I can then see fund, so if you’d like make a donation to encourage my work, check out check out this first-year art teacher at Lucy Laney in Minneapolis who is raising money to provide easels, drying racks, and art materials for her students, or this music teacher at Washington Technology Magnet in St. Paul, who is raising money to buy guitars so that students don’t have to share 1 guitar between 4 students.

Election 2022: Sample Ballot/Index of Posts

Hello to a bunch of people looking up this site on their phone from a voting booth! Here are links to (hopefully) all my posts about this year’s races. (If you scroll and don’t find what you want, try a search, but remember, I only write about races that appear on the ballot in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. I did write a post about how to research a race, though.)

ETA: Someone was inspired to do similar research for city races in Lakeville, Credit River, Apple Valley, Eagan, Burnsville, Chaska, Eden Prairie, and Bloomington, with a bit of miscellany for St. Cloud, Maplewood, Robbinsdale, Maple Grove, Osseo, and Wayzata — find those writeups (not mine, but using a similar approach) at https://candidatenotes.com/

STATEWIDE

Governor & Lieutenant Governor: Tim Walz and Peggy Flanagan

Secretary of State: Steve Simon

State Auditor: Julie Blaha

Attorney General: Keith Ellison

JUDICIAL

There are no contested judicial races anywhere in either Hennepin County or Ramsey County.

MINNEAPOLIS AND HENNEPIN COUNTY RACES

US Representative District 5: Ilhan Omar

All State Senate districts: the DFLer

All State House districts: the DFLer

Hennepin County Commissioner District 2: Irene Fernando, but I did not write about this one because it’s uncontested.

Hennepin County Commissioner District 3: Marion Greene

Hennepin County Commissioner District 4: Angela Conley, but I did not write about this one because it’s uncontested.

Hennepin County Sheriff: Dawanna Witt

Hennepin County Attorney: Mary Moriarty

School Board Member at Large (SSD #1) (elect two): Collin Beachy and Sonya Emerick, but if you haven’t been following this race you should probably read my post to see if you agree with me; Sonya was my most controversial endorsement this year by far.

School Board Member District 1 (SSD #1): Abdul Abdi, but I did not write about this one because it’s uncontested.

School Board Member District 3 (SSD #1): Fathia Feerayarre, but I did not write about this one because it’s uncontested.

School Board Member District 5 (SSD #1): Lori Norvelle

SAINT PAUL AND RAMSEY COUNTY RACES

US Representative District 4: Betty McCollum

All State Senate districts: the DFLer

All State House districts: the DFLer

Ramsey County Commissioner District 3: Trista MatasCastillo

Ramsey County Commissioner District 4: Rena Moran

Ramsey County Commissioner District 5: Rafael Ortega

Ramsey County Commissioner District 6: Mai Chong Xiong

County Attorney: John Choi, but I did not write about this one because it’s uncontested

County Sheriff: I did not write about this one because it’s uncontested.


In addition to writing political commentary, I write science fiction and fantasy. My book that came out in April 2021, Chaos on CatNet, takes place in a future Minneapolis. It’s a sequel to Catfishing on CatNet and signed copies of both books are usually available from Dreamhaven and the NOW REOPENED Uncle Hugo’s (it’s at 2716 E 31st St in Minneapolis, in the former Glass Endeavors.)

I do not have a tip jar or a Patreon; instead, I highlight fundraisers. Three places you can donate this year: there is a science teacher at Sullivan STEAM magnet who needs some better computers so his students can actually program the cool robots they got. (This fundraiser is a long way from funding, so I want to note, DonorsChoose isn’t like Kickstarter, they’ll work with teachers and donors to come up with a good use of the donations if it only gets halfway there.) You can also donate to the Theater program at Henry High School in Minneapolis. Or, you can donate to the Movement Voter fundraiser I created; I explained back in May why I’m fundraising for the Movement Voter PAC and the fundraiser is still active.