Keep Right with Ralph K. Ginorio
Ranked-choice voting is a scam, and open primaries are a grift. These schemes are being tried here in the hope that they can confuse voters and confound their wills, as traditionally expressed through the ballot box. No lover of liberty should give credence to these attempts at psychological warfare and mass manipulation.
I have seen what ranked-choice voting has done to my former state of Maine. It has been a disaster, blighting political clarity. Maine Conservatives now have yet one more obstacle placed in their path, in addition to the hostile media, public schools, academe, state government, and courts. Mainers now cast their votes not for what they support, but against whom they hate.
The one thing that Socialists, Progressives, Liberals, and Moderates agree on is their opposition to Conservatives. The sole purpose of ranked-ballot voting is to dilute the vote of principled Conservatives. Were this scheme to be adopted here in North Idaho, moderate Democrats and RINOs would collaborate to prevent genuine Conservatives from being elected. They will vote
“strategically,” rather than according to the dictates of their conscience.
This is immoral. Instead of the tried and true principle of one person-one vote, ranked-choice ballots force voters to select for their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th choices, and so on. Each voter must actually make some kind of vote for each and every candidate, even for people whose platform they would never support.
For example, if a Communist were running in a five-person race in my precinct, I would be compelled to indicate that of the available options, the Communist would be my fifth choice. This is twisted! Under no circumstances would I, who have Cuban relatives who were and remain victims of Communism, be compelled to confer legitimacy on a Red by a positive vote in their favor.
The same thing would be true if a Jewish voter discovered an anti-Semite on their ballot. Should a descendant of Holocaust survivors or a relative of beleaguered Israelis be forced to indicate that a National Socialist or pro-Islamic Terrorist is any kind of acceptable choice, even if only their fifth in preference?
No! Ranked-choice voting should never be accepted by anyone who understands what a positive vote really means: the consent of the governed. Ranked-choice voting is nothing less than a betrayal of our Constitutional principles.
I have also seen what open primaries have done across the nation. It is a grift to allow those who cannot fairly win elections to illegitimately skew the results in their favor.
I do understand the frustration of being in the political minority. The first 47 years of my life were spent as a Conservative in deeply Progressive New England. My wife and I relocated here to North Idaho as political refugees, because we desperately wanted to live in a locality whose politics were not poisonous to our core convictions.
The minority is frustrated so it gets the state to intrude on the other party’s internal affairs? Nonsense! The whole point of a political party is for anyone with common ideals to pool resources and earn legitimate power.
As a Conservative Republican, I would never welcome non-Republicans to choose my party’s candidate. If a person wants to shape Republican policy, they should join the Grand Old Party and energetically participate. No one who does not do this has any role in determining what the Republican Party stands for, or who should be nominated to represent it.
Open primaries are a “solution” to “problems” that do not exist. When citizens cast votes that deviate from the preferences of certain elites, it is not “problematic.” It is freedom in action.
Voting should not be a clever scheme to manipulate results, but rather a crystal clear expression of one’s principles in action. “One person, one vote” is at the heart of our American Republic. We should never, ever stray from this bedrock principle. Join me in rejecting both ranked-choice voting and open primaries.
