Greg Kesich is right that our political system concentrates power in too few hands (June 2) – but those are the major parties’ hands and they are aided and abetted by the media!

If every vote is to be counted equally, let’s not funnel our votes through party primaries and party presidential elections. This reduces both voters’ and candidate choices. Independents are now about 40 percent of registered voters. Nearly 50 percent of the millennial generation identify as independents.

Remember, the Maine and American taxpayer pays for our elections. The Democratic and Republican parties should not use We the People funds to conduct their party-controlled elections. They are private corporations.

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Mickey Edwards wrote a New York Times best-selling book called “The Parties vs. the People.” One of his major points was to end party control over ballot access.

Any eligible voter should be able to register as a voter. not as a party member.

Maine and America need true, open primaries through a truly open presidential election. Otherwise, America will continue more as a partiocracy than a representative democracy (a republic). Regarding the Electoral College, wasn’t it the states representing We the People that created the federal government? Wasn’t it an effort to create a balance between larger and smaller states?

Want to improve it? Eliminate the electors! Retain the electoral votes and allow each state to determine how they can be automatically allocated by congressional district or statewide by popular vote.

Yes, Maine’s a small state with a small voice. That won’t change much. But our We the People’s voices should not be muffled by party control! Let every vote count in Maine. Let us end party control over our election systems.

 


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