VOTING: One person, one vote

This November, we are being asked to decide if we wish to eliminate voting as we know it. Instead of the tried and true principle of one person-one vote, ranked-choice ballots force voters to select their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th preferences. Each voter must actually vote for every candidate.

If a Communist were running in my precinct, I would be compelled to indicate that the Communist would be my 4th choice. Under no circumstances would I, a descendent of Cubans who barely escaped Castro, ever confer legitimacy on a Red by a positive vote in their favor. A Jewish voter who discovered an anti-Semite on their ballot would be compelled to vote for a National Socialist or an Islamist, even if only in last place. Ranked-choice voting defiles what a positive vote really means: the consent of the governed. It is a betrayal of our Constitutional principles.

Open primaries allow those who cannot fairly win elections to illegitimately skew results in their favor. Political parties exist for people with common ideals to pool resources and earn legitimate electoral power by nominating like-minded candidates. Parties, a form of political expression, should not be suppressed.

Voting should not be a clever scheme to manipulate results, but rather a crystal clear expression of one’s principles in action. “One person, one vote” is at the heart of our American Republic. We should never, ever stray from this bedrock principle. Vote NO on ranked-choice voting and open primaries.

RALPH K. GINORIO

Coeur d’Alene