September 23, 2026 Minneapolis 360 - KMOJ 89.9 FM

89 9 Camel J the people station 20s is this your girl glam life? Jim and it is three after the one o'clock hour and in the studio with me today I am so just happy and I laid it because I already know I know although I love I'm so happy to see you Anthony yes indeed Anthony Taylor is back y'all with the city of Minneapolis talking to my favorite is we you know it's been a while since we didn't say it that people in the world it's so good to see you too thank you to see you too soon looking bright like a bright full of sunshine you know I'm in this building that's why you know and I see you it's a wrap like I'm good for a week now come on I'm good for a week I got no no I'm good I'm not gonna bother me no more I love it I love it so we got I mean of course we're gonna be talking about elections but tell me I mean how are you really doing tell us about your new role and it's been great you know I'm managing the team I Leah's part of my team a cultural specialist I was in a manager position and was able to hire somebody like Alia who is such a great person her spirit and give some condolences I was you know she lost her stepdad recently so yeah so sorry sis yeah so we gonna be gonna send our thoughts and prayers up to her and I'm filling in you know she got some I'm stepping in some big shoe I'm I look I'm so stravest to hear that right like man this was this was our thing the past the towards the back to somebody who was is this so you know in tone with her community her spirit I mean she can't walk past you without giving a hug to you absolutely just a beautiful soul so we gonna send some thoughts and prayers I'm gonna try to do my best not to mess up you got it come on now come on now you got this you know if I ride the bike once you have done it before you ain't gonna forget how to do it true true and I got you always right so I got you know saying you always right so I appreciate I love it I appreciate y'all you know she was telling us that you know it's a lot been going on with the city of Minneapolis and this you know budget cuts and just not sure of how and where things are so I pray that this show continues me too me too you know money money is always an issue and all of these government entities it's always cuts I think sometimes a mayor makes these decisions and sometimes it on always feel good right and one of the things I think is always important regardless of what you do I don't care if you work for the city I don't care if you work for the store I don't care if you work for McDonald's how you are your relationships with people how you show up right and how you are in relationship man to me I think a lot of times when you decisions are made that's not taken into account yeah see what I'm saying is bottom line right and sometimes you know we get affected but you know I know Alia talked a lot about you know the budget hearings and people can kind of I seen you on a meeting yesterday to you doing your civic duties I look at it she made sure you know make sure you own that call she you know make sure to make sure I was there yeah absolutely so we'll see you know we're going we're going to preach it into existence we've got some time yeah if not we're gonna celebrate I know I live on celebrate the history and all this stuff so we're we're going if we go out we go out with a bang no it's good I have faith that this is gonna stick around okay me too me too so it's always good to see you this is it's important y'all I am back in the building in theapolis Camo J studio I'm like Camo J studio yeah I do it absolutely come on welcome Minneapolis to Minneapolis 360 I am your guest host Anthony Taylor in the building filling in for my girl I Leah Grant want to say thank you for just being in the studio sitting her thoughts and prayers I hope she's listening she had a passing in her family so I'm gonna send all my love to you absolutely absolutely and as we transition you know Minneapolis you know I've been doing this show for quite a long time I've always told everybody that I have talked to bit in the studio especially Cam and Glenn like there's a lot of my favorite shows that I've been able to do in the last few years and one of them is elections and I always tell people me and Glenn was kind of talking a little bit this is the only way that you are able to empower your vote to make change right a lot of times we can't do a lot to change policies and procedures but we can know we can keep in office or get out of office and elections are one of those important things that we can really do and for me y'all I think it's important and we'll talk a little bit later you know I always got to do my public announcements speech before but I think it's important y'all to understand that because obviously it's coming up here real quick on November 3rd you know it's almost October you know I think it's important for us to know some some rules and some regulations and some early voting places and just some information and election and voter services is one of those departments in the city that really do a great job I have a person on here that on the show that's been around for a lot and done a lot of these shows and I want to welcome Maria Johnson to the studio welcome Maria how you doing good hello hello hello I know we talked actually maybe a couple of weeks ago and I'm glad you're you're back at it I know I Leah is the host and want to make sure election voter services was on and you've been on the show so give people kind of a reminder of kind of who you are and what you do with election and voter services well I'm just as you heard my name is Maria Johnson I've been doing this for about 10 years now I work in election services I work mostly on the in-person side so that's for those voters who want to come in and vote early we start 46 days before election day the other side is the mail inside and so that's kind of my role of what I do here and one of the things I want you to talk about too we got a lot of information to cover so I might jump around this interview Maria but let's start about like early voting right so what's kind of the up day with early voting so far so well so far early voting is you can come in you can vote you can vote in person or you can vote by mail and you can go online and put your app you know apply for your app they'll mail you of ballot in the mail you can drop those ballots off if you're uncomfortable you can bring them to 980 East Hennepin or you can continue to mail your ballot in and that will go until the day before election day which is November 2nd will be accepting ballots on election day they will accept ballots up until 5 o'clock that day and nothing's changed with voting by mail to correct like the everything still kind of status quo exactly exactly yeah nothing yeah yeah no same period same process you know you can like I said drop off your ballots if you would like to make sure you know you feel more comfortable you can track your ballots also to see where you know where it's at in the process we start opening those about 18 days before election day is when those ballots will start to be opened and that's a whole different team of people who do that okay so you know I think this is good for our community you know because sometimes I feel like people are so quick to say that you know I'm not gonna vote because it's not gonna make any change or you know what's the you know what's it gonna do what's gonna help well even if you don't vote there's still a vote that's cast it for you right because you're gonna answer that yeah absolutely true you're gonna respond to that so I didn't hear what you were asking well so it's important for you to vote it really you know it's important that you're right and that's you know how we make changes is by voting right but I what I think I was trying to get to was how people don't understand that even if they don't vote it's like you're voting right because you not voting means that somebody else that you might not have wanted to be in there is it's casting well correct yeah correct so I mean it's good for you to go and research and see who's on the ballot see what what what you know what you want to see happen and that's the way for you to go and you know research people and then vote for that person otherwise the other person that you may not want in office will get in office and then you're sitting there wondering what happened absolutely and that's what Kim is talking about right if you're not voting and then you are complaining like you're not voting is casting a vote for somebody else that's exactly what she was saying in Maria I think it's so important what Kim brings that point up and we'll get to this too is that like all votes count right and even though we've had some elections you've probably seen a lot where there's this small number of percentages that people win by like super small numbers right yeah so your vote can count your one vote could have made the difference and if there's 500 people who think that then I can change a whole election yes you know yeah that's yeah that's true that's true so it's just best to cast your vote you know yeah and our ancestors who couldn't oh yeah now we talking cam or jay stuff come on yeah yeah it's important to just you know know exactly like you know what these people believe in if they get into the office what what impact and what change do they plan to make and then that way you could say okay I'm with this or not because if you don't do your research ahead of time you do diligence and you don't know them when they get in office and things start changing that you didn't like okay that's because you didn't do your do diligence yeah 100% go ahead Maria and you're not gonna agree on everything you may not agree on everything that person stands for but you know maybe three out of ten or five out of ten but at least you know you tried you did what you were supposed to do by voting 100% talking to Maria Johnson elections coming up y'all November 3rd is an important day and and so Maria as we kind of inch closer because to be honest it's gonna come up on us fast right everything comes up on us fast as we as we get older and things happen but like what should people be doing like right now like is there a plan that you should have like it's it's a ways away but it's not so what should I be doing right now Maria well the plan is to plan how on how are you going to vote I mean you like I said you can vote early you can vote on election day we do have let me see there's let's see about eight different pop-ups that we're gonna have throughout the city of Minneapolis so I would say get on you know those states website start researching the candidates and decide how you want to vote if you want to come over to 980 East Hennepen and vote early in person or if you want to do a mail-in ballot and you like I said you can also drop that mail-in ballot and if you get your mail-in ballot and you decide I think I want to go into the office that's fine too we you can do that as well so there's many ways that you can put you know place your vote and like I said there's gonna be about eight to nine I might be even more than that pop-ups that are they begin on October 19th and the first one is actually at Weber Community Center which is 4401 North Bryan Avenue and so you can look on the states website and it'll tell you who and where these pop-ups will be yeah absolutely they're quite a bit and Minneapolis I'm just going to name a few you can get on the website to be able to find out exactly the dates and time but Maria absolutely right a Weber Community Center on the 19th Minnesota Institute of Art on the 20th Cedar Cultural Center in October 21st Midtown Global Market there's Powderhor Park higher grounds evergreen residents people serving people the wise and art museum little earth Lynnhurst Park Rex Center Subatini Osberg I'm not gonna read all of that because it's only a 30 minute show but like you can be able to go and find these pop-up places and it's really important you can also like you said go to the early voting center 980 East Hennepam and as Maria we talk about these pop-ups and elections like can you just talk about who's on the ballot this year okay well this ballot is going to include the office of your the governor the attorney general secretary of state there are so they're on the other side are a list of judges there's the US rep senate races there's the county and school district offices so there's quite a bit on the ballot so be good to kind of research you know so you kind of know when you come to get your ballot who you're going to vote for absolutely again y'all talking about go ahead Maria oh then I was also gonna say that you know we're open the two weekends prior to um election day Saturday and Sunday so there's plenty of ways to plan your time to be able to vote absolutely talking about elections like you know a lot of people are like me right I like I'm slow to register I procrastinate I forget a lot of stuff I forget my glasses I can't vote that day like all of those things I think like happens like so like right now if I need to register Maria what's my options so if you want you can pre-register online and that's usually 21 days before election on November 3rd the deadline for that is October 13th if you've moved make sure that you if you're going to register in person make sure you bring your documents with you if you know we have to you have to verify your address and what else you know in your ID so those are ways to register but the deadline to register online is October 13th you can also register on election day as well that's me I'm one of those last men and I wait till election day and then all of a sudden before they close I'm headed you at the polls right and a lot of people I like that Maria and one of the things too like I love the information you you're you're you're giving us right because it's like early voting you know no those options no in the last time you can you can register online understanding the fact that you can go to the on election day and you can register and then all of these pop-offs where people can go vote beautiful thing I want to turn a little bit to something maybe a little bit different right because a lot of times I think we hear a lot of narratives in community nationally and from you know the federal administration to a lot of other things that we hear that maybe aren't so true that maybe cause people to not want to go to the polls so I want to talk about safety right and I want to talk about you know being able to be a community member what makes me go into the polling place safe should I come be a citizen and try to look out and help you know and honestly you know can I feel safe going to the polls so kind of talk a little bit about that if I see a large group of people like just give us some guidance right into some of those things that I just mentioned well you know all the polling places they have their head judges and um assistant judges so if you see something you can always pull one of them aside as far as safety goes um I'm not aware of any protocols that are in place right now but I would say that the polls are safe you know I work I work the polls and I feel pretty safe you know with what's going on like I said you have your head judge and the assistant judge head judge and if there's anything going on or you need to report and then we have a way of reporting back to the city there's a team of people that are on the phones all day long um for various there's problems or issues that arise they will be on it like right on you know right away so I feel it's safe to go to your polls okay and and again like there's so many different narratives you know we uh have experienced a lot in the twin cities you know Metro surge and a lot of other things so I I always want to make sure that that people get the information because there's a lot of false narratives on a lot of different stuff y'all we already know it is and it's just crazy so I'm glad you said that um longest people are aware that I'm really okay so like a couple more questions Maria uh before I get you out of here and I love what you kind of said a little bit I don't know if you ready to touch on that or not but you know you say it's something a little bit about the ancestors right and how our ancestors weren't able to to vote and a lot of our ancestors and one thing I'd love for you to talk about and this necessarily from your perspective like for you why is it important for you to vote how do I and you've been doing this for a deal you say like 10 years like what's your story on on your voting what's your voting story my my voting story is I've been voting ever since I was able to vote I just always knew that it was important and something that I needed to do um you know so many uh people were not able to vote at certain times in their lives and it's you know if we have that pathway for for to vote and so I've just always voted like I said ever since I was able to vote I couldn't wait to you know cast my ballot absolutely and like you know can you know we we were voters what's your voting story man you know so and I really I grew up I don't know if you knew this but you know I grew up a job of witness so my mom was always like yeah we don't vote we don't you know but then of course you know it's like I've grown on my own and when you start to notice you know some of the things that's happening I had to realize that it's time for me to start doing my due diligence right to figure out you know uh what mayor I want to have in my city what attorney general we want to have what do these people believe and you know uh is it something that I you know and unfortunately you know I look at like how does it affect me right so that's how I typically vote you know according to my needs um and and so it but it's a lot I get it and so I know it can kind of deter people sometimes from you know feeling like oh do I or sometimes you don't even you only look at the mayor and you may not look at all the other people you just choose one like I I've been there you know uh go all democratic go all right yeah yeah and so I mean hey that's the reality but I do make sure that I get out and vote and I even top my son you know hey like you know as you are growing up it's important for you as well to know and even when we when we get there like last year we got there and he like I don't even know these people are okay stop yeah look look at look them up real quick right look and see you know yeah absolutely and and and and that's typical of a lot of people's stories and just real quick like one of the things for me is that you know I was not a a voter early but I was a voter mid life right now I started to but also too what I did is it was a sense of pride for me to get that I voted sticker like I would rock that out right you know what I'm saying that sticker was like important to me is a badge of honor when I found out too that's a that's a badge of honor for a lot of our cultural communities too right because of the right right so it's super important and just Maria real quick you know talk a little bit about like why like the the local and state elections are are almost as important and probably more important in like the general elections with the president well you know the local that kind of you know that you know it helps with your everyday life you know and so it's important to know who those people are and what the policies are because that affects your life on a daily basis and so it's always important to vote the local as well as the federal and the president yeah absolutely and like you said it's more localized than anything and kind of the the last question Maria and again thank you I know you guys are busy over there and I know you do a lot of great works or I'm thankful for you able to carve out some time today like what advice would you give like people who are voting right so we know it's already September 23rd we talk about a plan which is which is great advice for you but like just some advice for for people heading towards election day you know I would just you know have make a plan have a plan you know and and get on but you know get on the website and research you know that's how you learn is by researching and learning who the candidates are and learning oh they stand for that oh well that affects me well yeah I guess I will get to the polls and vote so I just say you know have a plan of how you're going to vote where you're going to vote I mean there's so many options out here right now so just just have a plan make a plan yeah absolutely I thank you a lot Maria it was good to see you a couple days ago actually more than like a week ago it's good to see you good to hear from you again I always appreciate you being on the show so well thanks for having me welcome and have a great rest of your day yeah all right you too thank you all right bye bye yeah that was Maria Johnson from election and voter service is talking about elections Kim she brought up some manages this this stood in my soul and it's like our ancestors like you know it's the truth yeah they fought absolutely for us to be able to have this right and so why not make a use of it we know that they were setting us up right they they plan for us just as we want to do for our children right we want to set them up so that they can have an amazing life and so why not you know follow their lead follow follow their lead and and again like two there's workplace rules that would allow you to go and vote right so you can you there's no job to say you came vote like understand those laws y'all I think it's important and and can you mention something too like your vote is almost a non-vote a vote that doesn't count especially if you like rooting for somebody or who know right so man yeah I think you know just even with like hey the president that we have now you know so many people have complained but if you did not vote it's just like voting for him yeah because all the people who vote for him they're both downing right right and then you end up having somebody dead you know I'm not happy about happy about so don't complain if you're not willing to you know help us and make a decision that works better you know for us absolutely y'all November 3rd is election day come up with a plan get to the polls you can go early you can do a lot of those stuff go to the website so just make sure you do it yeah I'm saying so I mean I mean I was I have been so lucky to have I Leah come on this show man to pick up this part time I'm able to guess holes I get to see my family in here I get to talk to y'all I'm still trying to see if my voice sounds silky and it do so I'm still I'm still I didn't mess it up y'all so I'm sister we back can always go to see you too is such a pleasure I'm glad all is well with you and your family thank you thank you thank you too all right well we gonna get back into the music and up next we shouldn't have walked a cube our banks over there at a damn hell you got it down hone it down just one last time we're station you to damn it 89.9 KM more Jane the people station