I'm an
independent voter, in the State of Arizona.
I recently voted early in the primary election. I choose to be an independent because I am
not a soldier for either party. In the
Arizona primary election, a registered independent must vote either on a
Democratic or a Republican ballot. This
seems counter intuitive, but it is the law.
Since I generally, but not predictably, take a liberal stance, I was
limited to accepting a Democratic primary ballot. This was not a good experience. The ballot was a page full of government
offices to be voted on. There was only
one candidate listed for each office, with the exception of positions with two seats
available and since you were allowed to vote for two candidates there were two
listed. There were no alternatives on
the entire ballot. Was that actually a
vote I placed?
The largest
voting bloc in the State of Arizona is the independents. We outnumber both the Republicans and the
Democrats. We don't vote as a bloc, we
vote as individuals. Some are
ultra-conservative. Some are
ultra-liberal. Some are moderates. It is kind of the way a democracy should
be. Independent voters are generally
tired of partisan politics and would like to see problems solved rather than
opposing party positions taken. The
parties of today are more responsive to large corporate dollars than they are
to the needs of the voters. Political
parties are the legal conduit for corporate bribery and dollar influence. Their delegates go to conventions every few
years and wear funny little hats. They
like balloons.
So, how does
Arizona welcome an independent, non-partisan candidate? Well, first off, it requires three times as
many signatures for an independent candidate to be placed on the ballot as it
does if one is running as a Democrat or a Republican candidate. To put the icing on the cake, by state law,
independents must be listed last on the ballot.
How would you guess that the party wonks justify this treatment of
independent candidates and voters? They
justify it by the concept that power begets power. It works for them.
How would
you run an election properly? The
primary ballot would list all candidates for a given office, alphabetically,
with party affiliation being listed, as an option. The general election would offer the top two
vote getters from the primary, regardless of party affiliation. That would be simple and fair.
When I was a
young voter, half a century ago, I was disappointed when I saw only one choice available
for an office. Every so often, you would
see one position on a ballot like that.
But, an entire ballot that way… never.
The problem with Arizona’s Democratic primary is that the party powerful
made the choice of who would be the candidate for each office, not the
people. God Bless Our Democracy. It was great while it lasted.
Comments are welcome, Old Buz
