Bands vs Weather 2024, 9-3-1

[jennlk]

Both the Farmington band and the Livingston band played outdoor concerts last week. This finishes my band season -- while Livingston has one match left, I will not be playing that concert.

Last week, I pulled some weeds out of the rill. Later that afternoon, we noticed that the water level in the pond had gone way down. Blargh. After some testing, we determined that there was a leak in the rill, not the pond liner (yay? I mean, it's better than a leak in the pond, but it's still something that needs to be fixed). We both looked over the rill structure to see if we could see where the water was coming out, but couldn't. Sigh. That means that the leak is *inside* the rill, and the water is going down. J has since cleared much of the new growth around the rill so he can get to it, and cleared the rocks lining the rill so we can see the liner. And there's the problem -- a couple of large chipmunk nibbled holes in the second level, that were probably blocked at least somewhat by the huge root&dead leaf structure I pulled out. So he's been planning how to fix that, and how to fix some of the other things that are "not right" on the rill.

*I've* been working on elections. I worked three days of Early Voting, and worked at the township hall setting up for Tuesday's Election Day activities every day this week. (I will be Chair of the Absent Voter Count Board, so I'm actually official. phooey. do not want.)

Comments

[minnehaha]

I don't have access to the article Rolling Stone published about MAGA elections officials and the possibility of chaos in November. Do you have any insight into that?

K.

[jennlk]

Nope. We have been deep into preparing for *this* election. We do not have time/energy to worry about things for November. (We've had two workers call off sick already, and one ask to be shifted to a half day; and we were already down five people who are ineligible to work this election because they have family members on the ballot.)

I'm sure the county election crew has people working on it, and they will let us know if they hear anything credible, but they have a department with many full time employees -- the township I work for has three part time employees that might add up to 1.25 full time employees, and elections are not all that we do.

[jennlk]

blah. And after re-reading your comment, I see that you were asking about MAGA *officials*. We have them in MI. Some of them have actually been put on trial for their actions; others have bee quietly (or not so quietly) relieved of their positions.

There are quite a few election deniers in MI. We had one working the February election - zie will not be working for us again. We had a pair of workers who began working elections in 2020 because they were concerned about election integrity (Rs, but not MAGA-type). Not only were they satisfied about the integrity of the election, they've worked every election since because they like doing it.

Mi elections are very decentralized, and there's an intricate series of checks and balances and tests, so it's very difficult for an individual or small group to affect an election. (we also use paper ballots.)

[minnehaha]

The fear seems to be that small county MAGA deniers in elections will refuse to certify and then the state cannot be certified, and then the election cannot be... and chaos ensues.

K.

[jennlk]

I mean, I guess that's possible if you're that far into the land of egypt, but I honestly don't see how. If a board of county canvassers doesn't certify the election, I think the state bureau of elections steps in and forces a hand recount of the votes in the county by people not from the county. (I *think*. Do not take this as me speaking from any position of authority.)

And if it's a small enough county, it's entirely possible that the results of that county will not affect the state results, even if everyone in the county voted the same way (which would raise its own set of red flags). (If a county has 30,000 registered voters, and the preferred candidate lost by 35,000 votes, that county's results cannot affect the state results.)