Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Poltical Desk: Precinct Committee Officers

So, there's one last thing, then I will boil it all down to the recommendations.

There's something I either never noticed or is new on the ballot, something new and confusing (as opposed to the rest of the ballot, which is old and confusing). I am being asked to vote for a Political Precinct Committee Officer.

Actually, the heading says: "Precinct Committee Officer is a position in each major political party. For this office only: If you consider yourself a Democrat or Republican, you may vote for a candidate of that party."

And I blink at it a moment as say, "Excuse me?"

The rest of these ballotary process has been driving towards making things non-partisan, and here we are asked to vote for political officers? And only for major parties? Are the Greens too dispersed to manage a race? Is this another way of putting a GOP name on the ballot? Is the state giving the parties this space and ink for free, or do they have to chip in for the cost of printing?

And for my neck of the woods, why are there only GOP candidates. Have the Democrats already chosen theirs? Does only one person (or no people) want the job? It is a plot to announce to the world that we have a lot of shadow Republicans, since the requirement on the voting is "If you consider yourself" one? And how do they check on this? Even initiatives have more of a check and balance system.

Since I don't consider myself a member of an organized party (which means I'm a Democrat*), I'm ignoring it, but I found this one most passing strange.

More later,

*Thank you Will Rogers, whenever you are.