Published: May 06, 2008 10:47 am            

CURRAN: Primary works against Democracy; Two-party system, and ballot limitations, encourage status quo

Raise your hand if you’re an actual member of the Democratic or Republican Party, not if you just identify as Republican or Democrat, but are actual card-carrying members of these private organizations. How many hands do we have up there? Five, six?

Even if there are a significant number of members, which there are not, why do we all pay for these two organizations to choose who they are going to support in elections?

There are more than two political parties in Indiana. Greens, the Reform Party and Libertarians all have a presence in this state as do possibly others and potential independent candidates unable to rise from obscurity. Libertarians are the only additional party you ever see on a ballot in Indiana and then only in the general election.

Non-major parties, as well other politically-active organizations, must use their own funds to hold nominating conventions or other processes to determine the candidates they will be supporting in elections. Many of these smaller organizations use up substantial amounts of their meager resources just recruiting members to fund their activities.

Actual membership in the two major parties is a minor concern as all taxpayers fund their most important activity, primary elections. This encourages the false dichotomy of views and policy options offered by the two major parties and ensures no real, though needed, change will ever occur.

It is difficult to determine just what the cost is to Hoosier taxpayers to hold a primary election. Calls to the Indiana Election Commission and Clark County Clerk’s office and web searches for budget information were not helpful. The Clark County Auditor seemed willing to research the subject, but couldn’t give numbers before deadline and pointed out the difficulty in determining what any given election would cost.

In non-presidential primaries, voter turnout is dismal, but costs are lower. In presidential election years, turnout is higher corresponding with higher costs, though it could at least be argued more taxpayers are involved in the activity their money is being spent on. Given the “Indiana Matters” phenomenon and unusual interest in the Democratic Party’s primary this year, turnout and costs can both be expected to rise.

Anti-primary and minor-party activists in other areas have offered estimates we can use for a general idea of the potential costs. A primary election costs Kentucky taxpayers between $5 and $7 million. Indiana has more than 2 million more people than Kentucky. In La Porte County, Ind., the Clerk’s office estimates its elections cost taxpayers about $250,000. La Porte County’s population is approximately 110,500. Clark County’s is approximately 103, 600.

Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Indiana University Southeast Thomas Wolf points out that to his knowledge, only the U.S. involves itself in the nominating process beyond the regulation of expenditures.

“In other nations, political parties are considered to be private organizations and as long as their activities do not violate ordinary law, they are not regulated. No other system of representative governance uses primaries to nominate party candidates. A few nations have experimented with primaries and promptly discontinued them,” Wolf said in an e-mail.

Parties are not formal components of government, were not present at the Founding and were actively discouraged by many of our early leaders due to their negative experience with parties in England. The origination of public financing of primaries in the U.S. may be been as the result of a noble goal, that is, allowing blacks to participate in the choosing of candidates in the South. However, as this historic election indicates, there is no need to continue to tolerate one wrong put in place to correct another.

Given the seeming pointlessness of funding these nominating elections, the real costs to taxpayers and the discouragement of new voices, it seems primaries should have been an ideal target for legislators looking to cut costs to provide property tax relief in Indiana. It appears the subject never came up.

The primary process, as well as restrictive ballot-access laws, guarantee the majority of our elected leaders are Republicans and Democrats, and it is unlikely members of these two power-entrenched organizations will find any motivation to change that system unless faced with an overwhelming appeal from voters.

“The intrusion of government officialdom into American political party functions is a long, complex process encumbered by the desire to let people that have literally no commitment to a particular political party nonetheless participate in selecting party nominees. That makes NO logical sense,” Wolf said. Wolf compares non-members voting in party primaries to Kiwanis members voting in Rotary elections and vice versa.

Dear Republican and Democratic Parties of Indiana: if you want others to finance your parties, please charge a cover and let the rest of us stay home and keep our money in our pockets.

Jeffersonville resident Kelley Curran hates that her money was wasted on donkey and elephant races. She’d rather have spent it on a hat for a famous horse race. Write her at kelinawriterhat@aol.com

        

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