Election 2012 and the California Primary

Ken Stone authored a Patch asking readers how California might become more influential in selecting nominees for the office of the presidency. For certain, California’s delegate muscle in this process is a double-edged sword.

On the one hand, it has been suggested that “ ... as California goes, so goes the nation;” lending to the importance of California’s perception—expressed by primary results—as to which candidate’s vision for the future best fit the needs of the nation; but could, on the other hand, be meaningless should a candidate be delegate qualified before our June 5th primary.

Personally, I believe the entire election process—both at the state and national level—needs to be sanitized and re-structured. We have become accustomed to a system that constantly changes the rules, is both cumbersome and costly to independent and third party candidates, but is ever so favorable to well financed incumbents.

In that we Californian’s constitute the largest slice of America’s electoral pie, I also believe we must accept the grave responsibilities intrinsic to our influence relative to the national election process; with a particular eye toward creating a system that is transparent, fraud proof, and user friendly. Here are but a few ideas (reader participation encouraged):

-- Outlaw and eliminate re-districting (gerrymandering). Not only would that greatly simplify registrar tasking, it would also mitigate the political shenanigans associated therewith.

-- Remove all avenues of partisan influence from election processes; e.g., disallow political parties from prohibiting nonpartisan affiliated voter participation in primaries.

-- Trash the voting machines and return to paper ballots. All ballots, including mail-in/absentee ballots, are to be counted at voters’ designated polling places only.

-- Enact polling place procedures that include both human and video surveillance to ensure vote counting integrity.

-- Schedule election days on Saturdays and Sundays.

The longer “career” politicians stay in office, the greater their influence expands and, in far too many instances, the further they become detached from the people they are duty bound to represent.

When considering the sobering reality of today’s economy, the ever further restrictions being placed upon our civil liberties, and the prospect of being engaged in perpetual wars abroad, common sense tells me that these anomalies were born under conditions that allowed for a faster rate of government growth than that of the private sector; leading to the obvious conclusion: bigger government is not the solution -- it is the problem.