Voters in Arizona supporting Donald Trump, who seized on a technical issue to promote unfounded fraud conspiracies around voting machines. 11 November 2022
- This last week saw the US Midterms take place with no major issues reported. Despite extensive disinformation and fear mongering proliferated by various groups opposing the use of voting machines, there have been no reports of fraud. In Maricopa county, Arizona, a technical issue resulted in 60 voting machines improperly lining up and reading ballots, however technicians were rapidly dispatched for repairs. While state election officials guaranteed that all votes would be counted, Republican senate candidate Kari Lake and former President Donald Trump were quick to seize on the issue to promote baseless claims of fraud.
- The city of Durham in North Carolina, USA, announced USD $2.4m in funding for a participatory budget yesterday. This will be the 3rd year that the city has allowed citizens to select and propose developments they want to see in their communities. Submissions are open now.
- Speaking of participatory budgeting (PB) – voting closes this Sunday, the 13th of November, In Potsdam, Germany, on a participatory budget that has seen 12,000 people cast votes on 40 citizen suggestions for municipal spending. Once closed, the project will move to determine which 20 of the 40 proposals will receive funding based on the results. Winning proposals will be handed over to the council for deliberation at the end of December.
- In even more PB news – the council for the national district of the Dominican Republic has also announced approval of a participatory budget for 2023 totalling 150 million pesos. This fund will go towards the development of up to 50 projects in the capital, with a maximum value of three million pesos per project.
