As the son of a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, at one time stationed in an Iron Curtain country, I have always had strong feelings about the importance of democratic elections. So, on March 5, 2016, I was glad to give up a weekend afternoon in order to vote in the Republican Presidential Caucus for York County.

Shortly thereafter, a longstanding friend (Barry Hobbins) announced as a candidate in the upcoming Democratic primary for what would be a vacant Maine State Senate seat. Knowing that I would be out of town on the June 14 election date, I went to city hall to change my registration and apply for an absentee ballot. I was told that I could not make this change for three months (M.R.S.A. 21-A Chapter 3 Article 2), by which time I would already be on my trip. By having registered as a Republican, I could not change to vote in a Democratic primary more than three months hence.

My city’s registrar said “we have this law exactly for people like you, who want to switch back and forth.”

I was disenfranchised, and dumbfounded. But to some extent, I sympathize with the registrar. This issue, and the concerns of the 275,000 Maine voters, who are not “party members,” can be easily resolved by The Maine Legislature passing LD 231, An Act to Establish Open Primaries. All of us pay for Maine’s primary elections. All of us should be allowed to vote.

William Bell
Saco

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