Three months out......

[poltr1]

.....and I already know who I'm voting for Secretary of State this November.

John Eastman.


Here's why. First, I've been fed up with both political parties and their partismanship for years. Second, the antics of the current Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell, have been absolutely deplorable. Do I want to see Blackwell as our Governor? Heck, no! And third, I know John personally. John and I are New Warrior brothers. I can vouch for John's character; he's a man of integrity.

Comments

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I really want to see alternatives to the two entrenched parties become viable. On the other hand, in most races I know anything about, there is a real reason to prefer one of the major party candidates; even if they are both bad, one is usually worse. So my philosophy, assuming there is a third party or independent candidate I would actually prefer to have in office to either major party candidate, is to consider, first, do I really have a preference between the major party candidates (in the hypothetical case where I really don't care, I can go ahead and vote for the the independent), and second, do I think the election is close enough that my vote is important for the victory of the less-bad candidate (if not, I can vote for the third party). In a typical case where I do care if the D or R wins, and it's not a foregone conclusion anyway, I have to balance the value of "sending a message" by boosting the TPC's numbers and the possible long-term future benefit of making third parties in general more viable against the possibility that my choice is helping the worse candidate win.

My own choice is nearly always for the short-term pragmatic choice of voting for the D or R I hate less -- but I encourage everyone to actually think about it and make their own choice for each election.

I fantasize about *real* election reform that would replace the system of primaries and single-vote general elections with a preferential ballot that doesn't force voters to choose between voting for the candidate they actually want and the candidate they can stand that has a chance. Unfortunately, I'm not smart enough to imagine a way in the real world to actually get such a system in place.