Daily Digest: Primary day edition
Good morning. It's Tuesday, primary election day and time to vote. We'll have results today online and on the radio. Here's the Digest.
1. Woman accusing Ellison says she won't release video. The former girlfriend accusing DFL U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison of physical abuse said she never intended for the public to know about an alleged video that captured the abuse and she doesn't plan to release it. The video and what it shows has become a focal point as Ellison tries to refute a single incident of alleged domestic abuse just one day before a critical election. Ellison has denied the accusation and says no video exists. Karen Monahan, Ellison's former girlfriend, says there is video, but for several reasons, she won't make it public. "It's humiliating, it's traumatizing, for everyone's family involved, and for me," she said in an interview with MPR News on Monday. She said she's also frustrated that people won't believe that she was assaulted unless she produces the video. "It sets the expectation for survivors of all kinds of forms of abuse, whether it be abuse toward women, abuse from police officers, abuse from other people in power, to have to be the ones, like I'm doing right now, to show and prove their stories," she said. "It's feeding into that." (MPR News)
2. Monahan told CNN she lost the video. Monahan said Saturday that she did not know where the video was because she misplaced it when moving. Monahan also said she would not want the video made public in any case, calling it "embarrassing." Asked again on Monday about the video, Monahan said she put it on a flash drive and packed it up in her previous home and couldn't immediately find it because it was in storage. (CNN)
3. Still have questions about what to expect when you vote in the primary? Here are answers. By the time you walk into the voting booth in November, there's only one candidate from each major party on the ballot. It's simple and straightforward, but it doesn't start out that way. There are often multiple candidates who want the chance to represent their party in any given race, so to narrow down the field, states hold primary elections. Any qualified candidate can file to run, but only the single highest vote-getter from each party moves on to the fall. Primary elections are partisan in nature, so they work a little differently than the general election. Here's what you need to know to successfully cast your ballot (MPR News)
4. Many people have already voted. Minnesota rolled out early no-excuse absentee voting four years ago. This year, early absentee voting stations opened throughout Minnesota on June 29. Since then nearly 120,000 Minnesotans have cast early primary ballots. As in most other places around the state, absentee voting is way up in Hennepin County. Ross Stadheim, 33, of Minneapolis voted last week. "I just wanted to early vote to get it done. I'm usually not a primary voter and this is the first time I've voted in a primary," he said. Gloria Gaines, 57, also of Minneapolis, voted almost a month ago. "I've been voting since I was 18 — a long time ago. And it works out better for me to do it early to beat the crowd, to beat the rush. Do it early so no stresses," Gaines said. (MPR News)
5. There's a primary election in Wisconsin today too. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kevin Nicholson both came out Monday against boycotting Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson, the day after President Donald Trump said it would be “great” if there was a boycott. Trump’s Sunday tweet forced Walker and other Republicans to take a position on the sticky political issue involving an iconic Wisconsin company just ahead of Tuesday’s primary where Trump allegiance has been a central focus. Trump on Sunday tweeted it was “great” that “many” Harley owners planned to boycott the company if manufacturing moves overseas, continuing a steel tariff dispute he’s had since June with the company. Walker, Wisconsin’s most prominent Harley owner. who faces a tough re-election bid in November, tweeted Monday afternoon that “of course I don’t want a boycott of Harley-Davidson.” That came after Walker initially on Sunday did not directly address the boycott call. Democrats running in the Tuesday primary for a chance to take on Walker teed off on his unwillingness to strongly defend Harley-Davidson. (AP)
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