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[Ian Meyer <ianmeyer AT gmail.com>]

the weird, unsettling, wrong part is how you have to pick a ballot, be
it dem or republican.

IMHO, if you're independent, your primary ballot should have everyone on it.

~ian

ps: a couple years ago (2 I believe) the County Surveyor position in
Harnett County was open, with only one candidate running, and as a
result, Harnett County now has a libertarian surveyor. ~ian

On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 11:12:33 -0400, Tanner Lovelace
<lovelace AT wayfarer.org> wrote:
> Diana Duncan said the following on 7/20/04 9:34 AM:
> 
> > Primaries are today!
> >
> > It turns out that registered independents *are* allowed to choose to
> > vote in Democratic or Republican primaries in NC.  While I find this
> > weird, unsettling and wrong...I would urge all who wish to vote today to
> > remember to go.  The Republican primaries are particularly interesting,
> > as 1) there's this big fight going on in NC between moderates and crazy
> > conservatives (I actually agree with many moderate Repub. principles)
> > and 2) for some of the seats, there is no Democratic challenger, so
> > basically the winner of the primary is the winner.
> 
> And, this is why independents are allowed to vote in the primaries.
> For many years, it has been the case that for many races, the winner
> of the primary is the winner of the election.  It used to be the
> winner of the Democratic primary, but recently (i.e. the last 24 years)
> it's been the winner of the Republican primary.  Therefore, in order
> to not be disenfranchised (man, I hate that word, but whatever...), it
> makes sense to have independents vote in the primary.  It is not weird,
> unsettling, or wrong, it's just the way things are.  Why should I have
> to do something I find unsettling or wrong (registering with a political
> party) just to exercise my democratic rights?
> 
> Now, I'll grant that it's probably not idea.  A better solution would be
> to make local elections non-partisan.  I'd much rather have that, but
> unfortunately, I don't see it happening any time soon. :-(
> 
> Cheers,
> Tanner
> 
> 
> 
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