election day
Apr. 27th, 2004 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioAs I approached the polling place this morning I wondered if they'd moved it without telling me -- there was that little signage. Yeah, it's a primary, but I still thought there'd be more campaigning, especially with one hot race for US Senate.
As I was voting I heard one of the workers say "that's the first Independent of the day". I'm not actually an Independent; I'm a registered Libertarian. To them it's the same thing: disable everything except the ballot initiative. The bundle of cards from which they pulled my registration seemed to represent about 10% of all cards, based on what I saw in the bin. (No, it didn't include Republicans.) Interesting. I wonder if the set of people registered in minor parties has a higher turn-out rate than the Republicans and Democrats. I suspect that people who register in minor parties are more likely to be politically active, but I don't know where to find the data on turn-out by party.
I considered temporarily changing my registration to Republican so I could influence that hot Senate race, but decided against. It feels wrong even though it's legal, and that race may already be messed up because the Democrats were encouraging their people to do that very thing and I suspect a bunch of them did. (The incumbent is mostly a Democrat in Republican's clothing; the challenger is a more traditional Republican. The Dems want to knock the challenger out early.) Besides, I couldn't decide which is less evil.
A friend once asked me why I choose to sit out the "real election" for local mayor -- that is, the Democratic primary. (This city is something like 75% or 80% Democrat; no one else need apply for local office.) Registering as a Libertarian, in addition to matching my beliefs more closely, also helps that party get onto the ballot and onto the registration form, and ultimately I think that's more important. You can actually check "Libertarian" on the voter-registration form now (you couldn't 15 years ago), because we passed a threshold with write-ins. Now we have to maintain it. If even a few people look at that option on the form and say "hey, whazzat?" before checking Democrat or Republican, we might increase awareness that there are other options. And maybe eventually that'll mean Libertarians in local offices. (Forget the national races; win local offices first and then focus on Congress, IMO.) I'm not active with the party itself, but at least my registration helps out a little.
Oh, in case you're wondering: I didn't live here during the last mayoral primary; Mayor Murphy is not my fault. I might have actually changed party registration for that vote becuase Murphy was so clearly a destructive force even then. To paraphrase a current anti-Bush campaign: I'd rather vote for a rabid weasel than Tom Murphy.
As I was voting I heard one of the workers say "that's the first Independent of the day". I'm not actually an Independent; I'm a registered Libertarian. To them it's the same thing: disable everything except the ballot initiative. The bundle of cards from which they pulled my registration seemed to represent about 10% of all cards, based on what I saw in the bin. (No, it didn't include Republicans.) Interesting. I wonder if the set of people registered in minor parties has a higher turn-out rate than the Republicans and Democrats. I suspect that people who register in minor parties are more likely to be politically active, but I don't know where to find the data on turn-out by party.
I considered temporarily changing my registration to Republican so I could influence that hot Senate race, but decided against. It feels wrong even though it's legal, and that race may already be messed up because the Democrats were encouraging their people to do that very thing and I suspect a bunch of them did. (The incumbent is mostly a Democrat in Republican's clothing; the challenger is a more traditional Republican. The Dems want to knock the challenger out early.) Besides, I couldn't decide which is less evil.
A friend once asked me why I choose to sit out the "real election" for local mayor -- that is, the Democratic primary. (This city is something like 75% or 80% Democrat; no one else need apply for local office.) Registering as a Libertarian, in addition to matching my beliefs more closely, also helps that party get onto the ballot and onto the registration form, and ultimately I think that's more important. You can actually check "Libertarian" on the voter-registration form now (you couldn't 15 years ago), because we passed a threshold with write-ins. Now we have to maintain it. If even a few people look at that option on the form and say "hey, whazzat?" before checking Democrat or Republican, we might increase awareness that there are other options. And maybe eventually that'll mean Libertarians in local offices. (Forget the national races; win local offices first and then focus on Congress, IMO.) I'm not active with the party itself, but at least my registration helps out a little.
Oh, in case you're wondering: I didn't live here during the last mayoral primary; Mayor Murphy is not my fault. I might have actually changed party registration for that vote becuase Murphy was so clearly a destructive force even then. To paraphrase a current anti-Bush campaign: I'd rather vote for a rabid weasel than Tom Murphy.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-04-28 01:19 pm (UTC)Yes and no -- the problem is, the electorates are very different, as is their definition of "really bad candidate". What the primary voters think of as a really *good* candidate is often what the rest of the world thinks of as a really bad one for the same reason: because the person is a hard-over ideologue.
Primaries can be very hard on moderates. For example, consider California -- Schwarzenegger won a surprisingly convincing victory in the recall election, but could never have been elected governor any other way, because he wasn't extreme enough for the Republican base there. (Granted, the Howard Dean experience is a counter-example, but he lost only because the Democrats are so deeply desperate to get Bush out of the White House...)