Minnesota and North Dakota Voter's Guide

Forum Communications Co., in collaboration with the League of Women Voters of Minnesota and of North Dakota, is providing this voter guide to help keep you informed ahead of the 2024 election.

  • Learn where candidates running for office in your community stand on the issues.
  • Build your ballot before voting. Print or email the information to use as a reference when you actually vote.

We do not save your information; it will be lost when you leave this page. Only candidates that appear on your ballot will be listed. Additional information may be available for your area so be sure to scroll to the bottom of the page for other voters’ guides.

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Voter Guide

Lake County Commissioner District 1

County commissioners are the county s key policymakers. They oversee the administration of the county, set county budget, and participate in county long-range planning. County services that they oversee include a wide variety of social service and welfare programs, as well as certain public health programs. Learn more about the day in the life of a county commissioner in this video from the Association of Minnesota Counties.

Click a candidate icon to find more information about the candidate. To compare two candidates, click the "compare" button. To start over, click a candidate icon.

  • Candidate picture

    Colby Abazs
    (NP)

  • Candidate picture

    Joe Baltich
    (NP)

Biographical Information

If elected, what will your top three priorities be and why? (750 characters)

How would you balance safe and secure elections with voting access? (500 characters)

What do you see as the biggest challenges to mental health and social services in your county, and how would you address them? (500 characters)

What approach would you take to delivering county services while managing the cost of delivering those services? (500 characters)

What role, if any, do you think the county board plays in immigration enforcement? (500 characters)

How do you plan to interact with constituents to best understand the needs of the county? (500 characters)

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Campaign Website http://vote.abazs.com
Campaign Email voteColby@abazs.com
Lake County's most pressing issues right now are access to housing, protection of human rights, and resisting capitalist greed that is threatening our precious air, earth and water. The short term benefits of extractive industries like mining and datacenters are not worth the negative impacts as we get left with the hundreds of years of cleanup. Right now basic human rights are under threat by our own government and Lake County needs to be on the side of the people by acting as a shield to protect our most vulnerable.
The ability for everyone to participate fully in the local government and community is of the highest importance and needs to be protected from the manipulative influence of money and power. We have people, technologies and institutions taking great care of voting access and while there is always room for improvement they are succeeding and the fact that our elections are safe and secure needs to be understood by all for it to be an effective encouragement for participation.
Addressing the shortage of healthy and affordable homes for residents and aspiring residents of Lake County is my top concern. There are many ways the County can influence housing and one of the most important mechanisms is through updating the building and septic codes to support community centered housing development across the whole county. These updated codes need to allow for creativity and flexibility while still protecting the most vulnerable.
The systemic revaluations of land has moved the tax burden away from the rich and onto the poor and since the County can't change how land is valued creative solutions are needed to correct that change by shifting the tax burden onto those who can afford to pay it. One step will be to adjust the taxes on commercial land which has not seen the same dramatic inflation in value.
While immigration isn't a top responsibility for a county there are many immigrants new and old who are valuable members of the community and need to be included and supported. I also believe it is the responsibility of local officials to set the tone of how we need to treat everyone as the important individuals contributing to the vibrant community that we are. We also must dismantle the systemic systems that continue to other immigrants and other marginalized groups of people.
I offer voters the choice of someone who will work stubbornly towards a more compassionate, uplifting, and just world. Voters should elect me to bring change and a fresh way of governing that treats everyone with respect and dignity. Even if we might disagree on specific issues you can trust that I will treat you with respect and listen with an open mind seeking the common ground that we do share and how we can best live together in community.
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The League of Women Voters of Minnesota and North Dakota crafted the questions sent to the candidates in the Spring of 2024. They reached out to candidates based on contact information in their public candidate filings. Candidates with email addresses were invited and reminded with emails. Candidates with only mailing addresses were sent a letter. Candidates with phone numbers received a phone call as well.

Candidate responses are published as they responded and have not been edited, except when responses were longer than the given character limit. In those cases, the responses are truncated.

VOTE411 is brought to you by the League of Women Voters Education Fund and League of Women Voters of Minnesota Education Fund. The League of Women Voters does not support or oppose any political party or candidate for office.