If my assumptions are correct, Pottawatomie County had a total of 9,757 votes cast in Tuesday’s primary election (5,412 Democrat, 4192 Republican, and 153 Independent). Figures are based on Shawnee News-Star 7-28-2010, Section B, Pages 4-5. Only two candidates ran for County D.A. both Democrats. How can the County District Attorney’s race be fair when 44.5 percent of the voters were disenfranchised from voting for either candidate?
With the current closed primary system of voting, this could possibly happen again. Most likely it would occur in the county D.A., county sheriff, county commissioner, or city mayor races. What if the next time this actually occurs in Presidential, Governor, Senate, Representative, State Attorney General, or any other state/federal race?
As an Independent voter, I propose the law be changed to open primaries. All voters mark a ballot for any candidate, regardless of political party. The top two to four candidates then go on to the general election. Theoretically, this could actually save in printing cost since only one form of ballot must be printed per election. If open primaries are not a solution, the law should make the cited case in point moved to general election.
For the nasayers out there, what if you are not allowed to vote for Democrat and only Republican candidates? It has been proven to happen once it will happen again. If you feel the way I do contact your State Representative and Senator to get the law changed/fixed. I already have. This is ethically wrong and possibly illegal by federal law.
Alan Woodward
Shawnee
