\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And I want all of you to vote the strraaiigghht ticket when you go to the polls in November.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d How many times have we heard this, and from how many politicians?<\/p>\n
Too many times and from too many politicians.<\/p>\n
And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I say New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran did something very clever just a couple of weeks ago when she got rid of the straight-party option, effective in the general election in November. I applaud the move. Remember, a slew of straight-party voters made it possible for Jerome Block to get elected to the Public Regulation Commission, even if other circumstances forced him to vacate that position.<\/p>\n
Officials who take a look at the final tallies to certify the vote can tell how many voted for all Democrats or all Republicans, but not who voted that way.<\/p>\n
I remember as a reporter for the Optic many elections ago when key office holders like Edwin L. Mechem, John Burroughs, David Cargo, Jack Campbell, Jerry Apodaca, Toney Anaya, Garry Carruthers, Gary Johnson and others would come to Vegas to kick-start campaigns. Sure, they would often tout their favorite sons and daughters, possibly someone running for a state office or even congress.<\/p>\n
Peppering the leaders\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 speeches were liberal insertions of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153straight ticket.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Now what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong with this picture?<\/p>\n
Primarily, that weird provision that lets a voter mark a big \u00e2\u20ac\u0153X\u00e2\u20ac\u009d at the top of the paper ballot, or pull one big lever. That action casts all that person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s votes for every Democrat or Republican on the slate.<\/p>\n
When did the thought process leave the voting booth, and when did the party become paramount? It is true that the two-party system, long a part of our electoral process, is dear to many, in addition to its being a means by which parties with divergent philosophies identify themselves.<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fine, but what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wrong with having people vote for the person rather than the party? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discouraging that in the 2010 election, 41 percent of ballots cast \u00e2\u20ac\u201d the majority by Democrats \u00e2\u20ac\u201d were for a straight ticket. I wonder how many voters \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which would include both of my late parents \u00e2\u20ac\u201d ever studied the candidates\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 qualifications for the office before going for the straight ticket?<\/p>\n
In spite of my strong approval of Secretary of State Duran\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s new mandate, I admit there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some criticism of the new policy. Melanie Rivera, the genial San Miguel County Clerk, obviously sees the issue from the vantage point of the director of elections. Rivera doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have an easy job.<\/p>\n
She says she prefers the straight-ticket option, if used wisely. The Duran Decree, Rivera says, is sure to lengthen individual\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s voting time. Whereas one used to be able to select the entire slate with one \u00e2\u20ac\u0153X\u00e2\u20ac\u009d or with one tug of a particular lever up high, now, each office needs to be considered individually, or ignored.<\/p>\n
And in the interest of time, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what bothers some critics of the new system: People in a hurry are bound to simply skip some of the offices at the bottom of the ballot.<\/p>\n
Rivera cites other factors that might make voting more difficult. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There are often a lot of constitutional questions and referendums that people need to go through, in addition to the races,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said.<\/p>\n
Several elections back, I chided a man I knew from school for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153homesteading.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d He entered the booth with his father and needed to go over every race and interpret every amendment for his elderly father.<\/p>\n
Was I being rude when I gave a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153golf clap\u00e2\u20ac\u009d upon their exiting the booth? Perhaps, but I was wondering why the man hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t secured a sample ballot and gone over it at home, even helping his father make actual choices \u00e2\u20ac\u201d before election day.<\/p>\n
Can an election official (or anybody else) rush a voter? No, says the county clerk.<\/p>\n
Rivera estimates that 11,000 people voted in the last general election; she said she hopes the November General Election draws more than 60 percent of those registered.<\/p>\n
The clerk says she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heard several disapproving comments on the removal of the straight-ticket feature. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I like the way the straight ballot worked,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Rivera said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and a lot of the elderly liked it too.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Another voting policy change of which I approve is the voting convenience centers which were used for the first time in the recent June election. Rather than needing to drive a distance to vote, people had a choice of several venues.<\/p>\n
Each site contains \u00e2\u20ac\u0153privacy booths\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as well. I like this convenience center innovation. But yet … going to the same voting booth \u00e2\u20ac\u201d either Don Cecilio Elementary or Luna Community College \u00e2\u20ac\u201d allowed my family to see our Camp Luna neighbors, some of whom we hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t visited with since … since the last election.<\/p>\n
And the speed with which we performed our patriotic duty in the primary election made me wish for the times when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d dally and chat with Josie Flores, Mary Tarango, John Maldonado, Ernie Martinez, David Sedillo, Nappy Quintana, and a host of other neighbors.<\/p>\n
Who knows? I might even begin to miss my former ballot-explaining schoolmate \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and his father.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And I want all of you to vote the strraaiigghht ticket when you go to the polls in November.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d How many times have we heard this, and from how many politicians? Too many times and from too many politicians. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I say New Mexico Secretary of State Dianna Duran did something very clever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":938,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937\/revisions\/938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}