Tag Archives: 2017

Provo’s General Election Results for 2017

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America’s general election was held yesterday and, in Provo, that included elections for both mayor and three councilors.  Election results are not yet finalized, since our county clerk has not yet counted all ballots cast; but, if present trends continue, then here are this year’s election results…

For mayor, Establishment candidate Michelle Kaufusi, who seemingly wants a municipal government “strong” enough to decree grocery stores into existence, has defeated both fellow Establishment candidate Sherrie Hall Everett, who apparently wants to keep Provo “moving forward” toward the statist Vision 2030 future that she helped plan for it, and write-in candidate Odell Miner, who didn’t seem especially likely to either continue or reverse such trends.

For city council, Provoans re-elected incumbents David Sewell and David Harding, plus seemingly-like-minded newcomer George Handley.

These candidates were elected by only about 8,000 participating voters, who together constitute about 19% of Provo’s 42,000-ish registered voters, as well as less than 7% of all 117,000-ish current Provo residents.  This is an unusually large turnout for an odd-year election in Provo, but such high turnout likely resulted entirely from this year’s special election for U. S. Representative.  Altogether, these 8,000 participants, by majority vote, upheld Provo’s increasingly-statist status quo of higher taxes, deeper debts, increased spending, multiplied ordinances, disrespected rights, et cetera, which is tragic for one of America’s most “conservative” cities.

We Provoans who value our rightful liberty can do no more for it in this election, but can only start preparing for our next one.  We need to engage our neighbors in conversation, identify and/or proselytize like-minded ones, educate them, inform them, activate them, and organize them for perpetual victory.  And also actively seek out worthy candidates whom we can encourage to seek public office, and then uphold in doing so.  Which will hopefully avert a bleak future like Detroit’s and perhaps render Provo’s best days yet-to-be again.  Will you commit to engage in such political activism over these next two years—and beyond?

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Provo Mayor 2017: Miscounts and Write-Ins

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For those who haven’t already learned about it, Utah County’s clerk has discovered that at least 150 Provoan’s votes for mayor this year were never counted; also, Odell Miner (who placed third in this year’s primary election for Provo mayor) has now officially filed as a write-in candidate in this year’s general election to provide an alternative to statists Kaufusi and Everett.  We still favor Miner best of these three, but not enough to endorse him at present.

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Provo Mayor 2017: Kaufusi versus Everett

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Provo’s primary election (whose results were mostly certified this week) has determined that Provo voters will choose between Michelle Kaufusi and Sherrie Hall Everett for their next mayor in this year’s general election on November 7th.

Michelle Kaufusi was asked by Provo’s political/economic elites to run for office, and advocates a “strong” Provo—so strong, some might say, that it can wrangle our municipal economy into submission such that, when she says “dance,” it will dance, when she says “jump,” it will ask how high, and when she says “let there be a grocery store in west Provo,” it will produce a grocery store according to her will.

Sherrie Hall Everett wants to keep Provo “moving forward,” which presumably means moving in the statist direction that she helped to expound in Vision 2030—a vision that includes “sustainable development,” “Smart Growth,” homeowner subsidies, restrictions on rental housing, mandatory neighborhood diversity, city-run business monopolies, business subsidies, Internet censorship, socialized medicine, health regulation, and an expanding array of city-run recreation facilities.

Between empowering the state and subjugating the economy, there aren’t any good mayoral options this year for Provoans who cherish America’s wonderful political heritage of rightful liberty under Constitutional law.  Which means that we’ll need to work hard over these next four years to produce such options in 2021.  If you’re both willing and able to help with this task, then please visit our website for a proposed gameplan of what to do between now and then.

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Provo’s Primary Election Results for 2017 Addendum

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One week after this year’s primary election in Provo, with additional ballots tallied, reported votes for Sherrie Hall Everett (2,443) have now surpassed reported votes for Odell Miner (2,425).  If this lead persists as all remaining ballots are tallied, then Everett not Miner will face Michelle Kaufusi (who is still leading with 3,602 votes) in this year’s general election on November 7th.

This would mark a great victory for our increasingly-statist status quo here in Provo.  While Miner’s views seem more moderate, both Everett and Kaufusi appear to favor Provo’s presently-prevailing trends of higher taxes, deeper debts, increased spending, multiplied ordinances, violated rights, et cetera.  Kaufusi seems to want a “strong” city government that will vigorously manipulate the marketplace to create a grocery store in west Provo (among other statist feats), while Everett was very involved in Vision 2030 central planning and seems to want to keep Provo “moving forward” according to that statist plan.

These electoral results seem terribly ironic considering that Provo is ranked among America’s most “conservative” cities.  Hopefully, with our help, more Provoans will awaken before such statist trends devastate Provo as they devastated Detroit—but, so far, it seems that most of our neighbors are sleeping so soundly that it might require extreme effort to awaken them.

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Provo’s Primary Election Results for 2017

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Provo’s primary election was held yesterday for both mayor and a couple of councilors.

As for one of those two councilors, voters overwhelmingly favored incumbent Dave Sewell (with about 2,635 votes), who represents a tragic continuation of present trends toward greater central economic planning, such as higher taxes, deeper debts, increased spending, multiplied ordinances, disrespected rights, et cetera, as detailed on our Free Provo website.  Sewell will likely face young challenger Wesley Marriott (with about 824 votes) in this year’s general election, although vote tallies are still being finalized.  We’d love to say honestly that Marriott has proven himself a champion of rightful liberty but, since he hasn’t done so, we won’t be endorsing either candidate in this citywide council race this year.

As for mayor, ten candidates registered by June 7th, nine progressed into this year’s primary election on August 15th (yesterday), and two are now scheduled to face each other in this year’s general election on November 7th, and those two appear to be Michelle Kaufusi (with about 1688 votes) and Odell Miner (with about 1234 votes).  Sadly, neither strike us as valiant rights-defenders, although both seem highly competent.  Kaufusi was first to enter this year’s Provo mayoral campaign, at the invitation of Provo’s political/economic elites, and (like Sewell) represents a continuation of present statist trends mentioned above.  Miner served as a Provo city commissioner from 1974 to 1978; he doesn’t show blatant interest in either continuing or reversing recent trends toward centralized command-and-control, but he does want to manage well what we already have.  We consider him the better option of these two, although we don’t believe that he’s demonstrated sufficient reason to merit our endorsement.

Our only endorsement in this election was Howard Stone, whom we believe proved himself (despite whatever flaws he may have) to be a principled defender of human rights.  Stone placed fifth (with about 108 votes) of these nine mayoral candidates after Kaufusi, Miner, Everett, and Walters.

Altogether, Provo has over 117,000 residents (estimated), of whom 41,805 (36% of residents) are registered to vote, of whom 5,243 (13% of registered voters) actually bothered to vote yesterday, which is an unusually high percentage for off-year elections in Provo, but an unusually low percentage for what it should be.  Of yesterday’s voters, 1,688 (32%) voted for Kaufusi while 1,234 (24%) voted for Miner, which means that both Kaufusi and Miner won this election with the support of only about 3-4% of registered voters each, or 1-2% of Provo residents each, which are also appallingly low percentages.  An additional 2% of Provoans could have easily redistributed victory upon an entirely different candidate like Stone, which is why we tried hard to encourage liberty-lovin’ Provoans to vote yesterday, both directly and indirectly, although it appears that we succeeded far less than we’d hoped.

In any case, we haven’t given up, but will simply accept our losses, strive to proclaim freedom as best as we can during these next 85 days before this year’s general election, and strive to do better in 2019.  We’ll also continue to welcome any suggestions and donations and volunteers.  Thank you for your support, and here’s to a freer future for our thriving city!

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