Contact your state lawmakers.
If you would like to get involved and do something productive, you don’t need to donate any
money or collect any signatures. You simply need to contact your elected representatives and
make them aware that an alternative solution exists for establishing free elections - an election
process that does not require abolishing the bipartisan system.
Do:
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Identify yourself as a constituent.
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Give your full name and address.
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Be polite and respectful
Don’t:
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Make threats or accusations
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Send automated emails from a list.
Roughly 33% of Oregon voters supported the nonpartisan top-two initiatives that failed here in
recent years. We need 50% support to be successful. By providing a process that is fair to major
party candidates and abandoning the requirement that the bipartisan system be abolished - we
should be able to pick up more support. Specifically, we need the support of Democrats.
Consolidating the Progressive Vote
Closed partisan primaries allow both major parties the opportunity to consolidate their
support behind a single candidate prior to the general election. For Democrats, this really isn’t
enough. Democrats need to all the “progressive” voters backing a single candidate prior to the
general election. The results of the 2016 election for Oregon Secretary of State illustrates the
problem quite well.
Oregon is a “blue” state. The number of registered Democrats far exceeds registered
Republicans. Consequently, Republicans had not won a statewide race in decades until 2016. As
shown above, the Republican candidate only garnered 47% of the vote. This is not nearly the 50%
needed to win outright. Nonetheless, the Republican candidate was still elected because three
progressive candidates split nearly 50% of the vote.
Vote splitting in the general election has become a critical issue for Democrats. Al Gore lost
the U.S. Presidential election in 2000 because Ralph Nader siphoned off votes in Florida. It’s also
widely believed that Jill Stein may have cost Hillary Clinton the 2016 presidential race by siphoning
off progressive votes in Michigan. Add to this the fact that in both 2000 and 2016, the Democrats
won the popular vote for president, but nonetheless lost in the electoral college.
A partisan+top-two election process provides a solution to both problems: Vote splitting in
the general election and abolishing the electoral college. Unfortunately, Democrats need to
decide this for themselves, and in the current political environment, that doesn’t appear to be
happening. However, if Democrats lose another U.S. Presidential election in 2020, 2024,...
GET INVOLVED
CORVALLIS, OREGON
17 MARCH 2018