I haven't been in organizing field for very long, so forgive me for my original naiveté. You see, as my political experience, in college and after, is by far based mostly upon Kentucky political elections, I had a few misconceptions about voting throughout the US. For example, I was under the impression that every state closed the polls at 6 pm, that all primaries were closed partisan affairs, that early voting and provisional ballots had been tried and hadn't worked well.
Seriously.
The truth is, Democracy in Kentucky, hailed by proponents of our county-centered, weak central government system, is broken. The path to any kind of populist control of the Commonwealth, and to any chance that the people of this state will get decent help from the government, depends upon the expansion of our voting rights, and yet elites of both parties continue to block any such efforts.
I was working all day on (for) Election Day 2007. I went in to vote early in my County Clerk's office, and found that, in order to do so, I had to sign an affidavit stating that I would be outside of the county on Election Day.
What? Election day is on a Tuesday in November - EVERY TIME. People work. Who's voting? Only the people that can get off work on Election Day?
It has to be, because polls close at 6pm throughout the state. If you go to work at 7 or 8 am, your only hope is to vote before work.
But wait...you've made it there by 7:30...sat in the line...to discover that you aren't registered to vote in this county. You're a college student at UK that's still registered back home in Owensboro. Or you just recently got a new job in Louisville and haven't bothered to change your voting precinct.
A lot of states, in these situations, allow you to fill out a provisional ballot, to be verified and, if legitimate, counted, at a later time.
Not here.
Different scenario - it's the primary election - and Kentucky, in the old Solid South tradition, has very strong and vibrant local Democratic Parties that ensure that local governments are always controlled by Democrats, as everyone "is" a Democrat who legitimately runs for office.
So what if I'm an Independent? What if I truly don't believe in the values of the Democratic Party, and register as a Republican? In a lot of areas, this means that I have no say in my local government elections - the closed primary system ensures this disenfranchisement.
This Democratic monopoly in local and even state politics, and the closed primary system that protects it, hurts the progressive movement, mostly through conservatizing the state party. It is a state with an enormous Democratic registration advantage that voted for Bush twice and is represented nationally by anti-choice, far right Republicans.
This system, and the localization of the Party and government structure, also quite potently disenfranchise students all over the state. Local support of students and colleges depends in a large part on the ability of students to make their voices heard.
Let me expound: When every student is registered as a Democrat in his/her home town, why should city councils support them? Why should the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government care at all about the youthfulness of the downtown area - the music scene - the culture that makes Lexington such a great place for young people to live, study, and work? Why not tear down an entire block to build an empty five star hotel? The students, in large numbers, either vote outside of Lexington (absentee) or don't vote at all.
I admit, this has been a disjointed, unorganized rant. Please bear with me. But it's a real problem, and here's why: young people and working people are disenfranchized in every single election. Progressives and populists are kept out in favor of good-old-boy, elite-driven politics. Politicians here are not accountable to the people they represent. And thus, no progress is made, and none can be expected.
We might be making (very very little) progress, as early voting has been tossed around the state legislature recently. But this is a big, and the media coverage is completely obsessed with budget negotiations. In this budget-crisis year, it's easy to say a new program is impossible because "times are tough and we can't afford it," even if it isn't true.
I want to support statewide candidates and legislature candidates who don't just talk like populists, but actually bring the issue of electoral reform in the state to the forefront. Here's my wish-list:
- Same-Day registration.
- Open primary elections.
- Early voting without conditions.
- Extension of polling hours to 9:30 pm.
- Provisional balloting.
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