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THE RED ANT UPDATE
Mayor Ireland, City Council and city officials have not responded with humor to attention from the national election integrity community concerning Aspen's May elections. They have consistently swept the problems under the ever-bulging rug, as they continually attempt to publicly discredit and denounce those who ask questions or go so far as to advocate for election reforms. As nationally-known election experts chuckle at the adolescence of the local antics, Mayor Mick blasts them back with petulant emails, and greets his most identifiable critic with an obscene gesture. The Ant asks your help by both informing yourself of the issues, and making a donation of financial support to the transparency project. The details follow....
FINDING HUMOR IN THE POLITICIZED MESS
The last few months have held only rare moments of Red Ant humor as both Marilyn and Elizabeth have been embroiled in bitter struggles with the City in each of their individual efforts to work toward future election integrity and reforms. However, the national election integrity community has been rather amused by some of Aspen's unbelievable missteps in conducting its election. (Like leaving 30% of the at-the-time uncounted ballots in an obviously unlocked box in City Hall.)
A Berkeley-based artists group, BetterBadNews.com, found humor in Aspen's version of "early voting," and produced a hilarious video referencing the City's confounding statements about voter "privacy," perhaps mispronounced "piracy," and anonymity, or was it "animosity?" (In fact, Aspen's version of "early voting" is not allowed by law. It was made possible by many rather casual interpretations of the state election laws.) The creators of the video, after reviewing hours of City Council meeting tapes and written articles, now call our town "Aspenistan."
Our favorite "Electoon":
Click the image to see the video.
Local public radio station KAJX put a little humor in The Red Ant's Christmas stocking with their commentary on the video. Click for KAJX Story
Mayor Mick apparently found no holiday humor in the video, and instead announced
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