Top 2 Threatens Rights of Political Association
Krist Novoselic, Grangemaster for the Grays River Grange #124, writes in the local Grange newsletter about his concerns for the rights of political association under the Grange sponsored Top 2 primary system we are using in the state of Washington right now.
Political parties should have the right to determine who can use their label on the ballot. The Top 2 allows any candidate to say they "prefer" any party. Dino Rossi can "prefer" Democrat and Christine Gregoire can "prefer" Republican. No one can stop them. The Top 2 system will lead candidates to choose the label which they believe will help them get elected. The labels will become worthless. The system will regress into a non-partisan system.
Some people in the Grange want to destroy the parties. Novoselic is not one of those people. He is advocating the overturning of the Top 2 as a way of saving the political parties.
Labels: Top 2
posted by Kelly Haughton @ 9:38 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
Krist spoke at our local Rotary club in Tacoma about ranked choice voting and the first time implementation in Pierce County last fall. I really had not focused on ranked choice voting before. Sure there were some administrative problems in Pierce COunty the first time around in the way the ballot was structured and the delay in county, but that was the auditors fault.
If you look beyond the administrative issues it is a much more efficient and fair system. The big parties may not like it, but it brings competition and has many merits. Krist is a great spokesperson.
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