Some here are treating one's political identity as something shameful or
embarrassing or secret, as if it were as important as one's Social Security
number or net worth. Something it is really important to keep from anyone
knowing.
I don't understand that.
First of all, what this law is saying is that--in a political **primary
election to pick a party candidate** for each of the parties listed--you
can only vote for the party for which you claim to belong, with whose
values and principles and goals you state you agree. You can change your
mind about that allegiance for the next primary, but you don't have to vote
for that party's candidate in the general election. You can change your
mind and vote for Hillary Clinton. That's the same idea behind the pledge
you have to make when attending a party caucus to pick candidates and
delegates to party meetings and convention. What is the problem?
As to Sharon's comment: What would you do or think differently about the
voters you dealt with on Minneapolis elections if you knew what party they
belonged to? Would you deny some of them a service or a right? Deny them a
smile and a pleasant demeanor? Would you refuse to deal with someone who,
say, was a Republican? Your seeming relief not to know that this or that
person was a flaming Bernie Sanders fan for instance, or a ferocious
supporter of Donald Trump, puzzles me: What does that matter to anyone
helping people take part inn our elections? Implicit in your relief is the
idea that if you knew how they thought politically you would discriminate
among and between them. Think about that. That posture doesn't make sense.
Here's my question: Why are people so frightened of having an open
political party preference, even just to vote in a primary? Unlike in
Russia or Eastern Europe, we don't get killed for being part of a political
opposition [yet]. Our political rights are sacred, and the only way that
people in our workplaces can make life difficult for us to be Trump
Republicans or Jill Stein Greens or Bernie Sanders almost-Marxists is if we
let them. If we don't stand up and ask: What's your problem with my
exercising my American rights to have an open political existence?
Next, people will be saying that we shouildn't e able to have
publicly-available lists of donations to political campaigns! I know, I
know, the Big Dark Money doesn't want us to know who they are, but I'm fine
with lists including my name and how much I have given to this or that
candidate. That's just as significant, probably moreso, than my vowing that
I agree with the DFL Party when I vote for DFLers vying to win their
party's nomination in a primary.
Note: I am not saying that we should go around our workplaces provoking
political tiffs with co-workers, or pretending to convert them to our
views. Politics doesn't belong there. But, that's not the same thing as a
toxic workplace where bosses establish an atmosphere of fear about not
being a Trumpian, or not belonging to this or that religion, because you
might lose your job.
Connie Sullivan
Como, in Southeast Minneapolis
Rest of post
On Thu, Jun 7, 2018 at 2:56 PM, Sharon Collins <<email obscured>> wrote:
> I have always been proud of Minnesota's system with No Party Labeling of
> voters. Working in the Minneapolis Election office for more than 10 years I
> appreciated that I did not know the party affiliation of people I was
> assisting. Therefore have always considered states that have party
> registration to not be as fair.
>
> Sharon Collins
> southwest, Minneapolis
> About/contact Sharon Collins: http://forums.e-democracy.org/
> p/sharoncollins
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