Tracy Warner has a column in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reminding me its primary day. I wouldn’t otherwise have remembered because there are no primaries in Tippecanoe County today. Mr. Warner’s column tells us the technical requirements of voting in a particular political party’s primary:
“A voter may vote at a primary election: (1) if the voter, at the last general election, voted for a majority of the regular nominees of the political party holding the primary election; or
“(2) if the voter did not vote at the last general election, but intends to vote at the next general election for a majority of the regular nominees of the political party holding the primary election; as long as the voter was registered as a voter at the last general election or has registered since then.â€
Utterly unenforceable, of course.
I “voted” in Fishers today. I walked in, signed the book, and walked out. Such is “voting” for us non-Republican, non-Democratic voters.
Perhaps it would work if they specified a font size.
I was part of the expected 8% turnout in Carmel today. There were no Dems on the ballot so I asked for a Republican ballot only so I could vote against Jim Brainard, the Republican mayor of Carmel who seems to be running for re-election as Monarch than Mayor. I actually think the votes will surprise people who watch Carmel Republican politics (all 10 of us).
Matt
The reason this utterly unenforceable technicality exists is that the political parties use the lists of the primary voters who took their ballots to be the most likely to be true believers. So, Matt, don’t be surprised when you get solicitation mailings from the Republican Party, and calls from your Republican precinct committee chair asking you to volunteer.
The reason it was set up this way, as opposed to regular registration declarations of party affiliation is that it makes impossible for 3rd parties to discern their likely true believers. You can’t get a list of how people vote in the general election, but by taking that primary ballot, they’ve made a statement.
A voter such as myself (walk in, sign the book, leave) is technically an independent voter. Now, I’m a Libertarian partisan, but who knows that from my voting? The Green Party could cull the list of all independent voters, contact them all, and have a tremendous strike-out ratio. Ditto the LP, the Socialists, etc.
Sure, the Ds & Rs will have strikeouts, like those who cross to vote against, but they have deeper pockets, and they know it.
Institutional corruption that serves both of the two parties well.
I don’t often get to say this, so:
Mike Kole,
Preach on, brother!
“I didn’t get a hurrumph outta that guy!”
“Give Mr. Kole a hurrumph!”
“HURRUMPH!”
“You watch your a…”
Sorry, need to watch “Blazing Saddles” again…
You’re right on Mike. I’m glad you get out of bed to show true independant voting unlike others (like me) that get on a blog a week later and say how good that was.
Getting involved is so tiring…
Shucks, Branden- We agree more than we disagree, by far. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read your comments, said ‘yup’ and then moved on because it wasn’t worth me clogging the comments with merely, ‘yup’.
Er, perhaps you don’t have the same experience… I’ll shut up now.
GROUP HUG!
Mike Kole,
Sorry I didn’t get back to this until the article scrolled off the front page.
Regarding instances of our agreement, that’s good to hear, but keep in mind that I have no way to read your mind and develop an inductive impression of how frequently we’re *not* at odds over an issue. When you speak up, it’s usually to disagree, and that’s fine, but you have to appreciate how this inescapably leads to sampling bias from my end. :)
It’s Doug’s blog, so it’s his call, but from point of view it’s perfectly fine to make an occasional “me too!” post. I think it may help to cement the sense of community we have.
Better still would be a restaurant/bar get together one of these days. Maybe somewhere on U.S. 31 or I-65 north of Indy so we can snag both the Indianapolis and Lafayette contingents of Doug’s readership. I’ve pitched this idea before, and by God, I’m gonna do it again! :)