It was only a few hours since I've just completed my shift as an Elections Precinct Official for today's Primary Election!
Judging by the level of confusion the format of our Primary Elections gives some of our voters, I truly believe the format must change!
Hawaii's Primary format only allows voters to pick ONE political party, and voters just choose from within that one political party.
[note: this doesn't apply to County offices nor does this apply to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs]
That the Primary Elections only allows voting within one political party might sound like common sense for those who were paying attention in their high school civics class.
But as we all know, not everyone in high school pays attention to their class!
So some of the first time voters get confused by the format!
Technically, the people giving the ballots to the voters are supposed to explain what they're supposed to do (vote within one party), but even then, that confuses some voters.
I was the person who directs the voters who have finished voting to put their ballots into the E-scan machine. If the ballots aren't filled out properly, the E-scan machine spits the ballot back out, and I have to re-explain the format the voters are required to follow for the Primary Elections. Some of those voters require multiple explanations.
Some might make snide remarks about such voters!
But you know what?
It's unrealistic to expect all voters to be political geniuses! Even those who may or may not have learning disabilities have a right to vote!
Instead of disrespecting them, why not make Primary Elections much simpler to understand?
California has a much simpler way to handle Primary Elections.
Basically, it goes like
- All those who want to run for a specific office will run against each other in the Primary Election
- People DON'T have to choose from one political party, they just chose from all the candidates that are running for the specific office
- and then ............................ the top 2 vote-getters will get to move on to the General Election.
(learn more at http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/primary-elections-california/)
Isn't that much more simpler way to have a Primary Election?
If we want people to be politically engaged, we have to make elections simple to understand!
Elections are too important to be made more complicated than they should be!
