SHOCKER AT THE POLLS

Open. Voters may vote in primaries of a party of their choice, the choice to be made at the voting booth. When voters do not pre-register for a party, this is called the pick-a-party primary because the voter can select which party he wishes to vote in on election day. In other open primary states, voters pre-register their party preference but the information is only used by parties for mailing lists and is non-binding.

Joe's Illinois has a "loosely enforced" system where the person must vote in the primary of the party whose primary he voted in before, but as he has shown, in actual practice it really is a "pick-a-party primary" system there.

Election Ignorance Must End
By Alicia Colon

An educated voter does his homework and will find good and bad candidates in every party. It is vitally important, however, to keep an open mind as we prepare to vote. I happen to be a conservative, but if I lived in Queens I would be voting to re-elect Council Member Eric Goia, a Democrat of the party that used to be. He's a politician who's hands-on, living and working in the community he represents. He sees a problem and does his best to solve it without wasting taxpayers' money. Then again, we have Democrats like Bill Perkins, who thinks noncitizens should have the right to vote, and Charles Barron, who sees everything in black and white, period.

Have Katie Barge and Lauren Weiner been indicted yet? No? I wonder how long it will take before these suspended members of Senator Schumer's campaign committee are charged with identity theft. Excuse me? Never, you say? Oh, that's right: They're Democrats. Republicans are getting indicted left and right on spurious charges while legal machinations against Democrats grind only slowly.

These two enterprising women are being probed for allegedly using a Social Security number to get access to a credit report on Maryland's lieutenant governor, Michael Steele, a rising Republican star. Mr. Steele is a charismatic speaker who also happens to be black, and that makes him dangerous to the Democratic Party, which must keep the black community in its back pocket. That's especially true here in New York City.

As Election Day nears, I keep hoping against hope that New Yorkers from all ethnic groups will wake up and take voting seriously for a change. This means exercising responsibly the privilege of electing our community representatives. For too long, too many New Yorkers have taken the easy way out and voted down the party line as a family tradition. Consequently, the same do-nothings get into office, perpetuating the status quo.

I've heard many in the minority community say they will never vote for a Republican. When asked why,they have no answer. Yet these same individuals are the ones who constantly complain about high taxes, failing schools, and poor services. They never bother to research the records of the politicians to whom they repeatedly hand over the reins of government. But things are changing, and while it may not be in time for this election, hope springs eternal.

A new organization was founded last year to break the yoke of ignorance in the election process, at least on Staten Island. Citizens Organized for Political Empowerment, aka COPE (www.copedrum.com), was established to promote a strong political organization and spark active participation in the civic and political affairs of Staten Island through education and voter registration.

The Sun was created to establish a pro-free market conservative broadsheet in New York City to rival the New York Times. One of the founders of the Sun, in fact, previously established and edited a website devoted to issuing daily critiques of the Times. Like the Washington Times, which was launched as a conservative rival to the Washington Post, the Sun is close to the Republican Party and conservative intellectuals. Especially on foreign policy issues the Sun's editorial opinions resemble those of the neoconservative The Weekly Standard magazine.

How very charming of you SS, to leave out so much of the article which preceeds that . . .

allegations against two campaign workers (you guessed it, Democratic campaign workers), and which Miss Colon had sufficient irony (or lacked a sufficient sense of irony) to entitle "Election Ignorance Must End."

Well, not precisely. The Illinois law says that a voter cannot switch parties if he or she voted in the other party's primary "within a period of 23 calendar months next preceding the calendar month in which such primary is held." 10 ILCS 5/7-43(d). Since primaries are usually 24 months apart, the law effectively means that a voter is free to switch parties at the polling place.

Of course, in the fantasy world of the left, anyone (especially an African-American woman like Alicia Colon) attempting to leave the Democratic plantation must be lying. Next thing you know, she'll be getting Oreos tossed her way.

Setanta wrote:

How very charming of you SS, to leave out so much of the article which preceeds that . . .

Yet you left out the entire article, implying that it was only about...

Quote:

allegations against two campaign workers (you guessed it, Democratic campaign workers), and which Miss Colon had sufficient irony (or lacked a sufficient sense of irony) to entitle "Election Ignorance Must End."

Of course, in the fantasy world of the left, anyone (especially an African-American woman like Alicia Colon) attempting to leave the Democratic plantation must be lying. Next thing you know, she'll be getting Oreos tossed her way.

SierraSong wrote:

Of course, in the fantasy world of the left, anyone (especially an African-American woman like Alicia Colon) attempting to leave the Democratic plantation must be lying. Next thing you know, she'll be getting Oreos tossed her way.

Cut the baloney. It couldn't have happened.

When Colon came in the room and gave her name to the volunteers, her party affiliation was listed right next to her name on the list. This comes straight from the New York State Bureau of Elections. So there is no way that the volunteers did not know she was Republican.

Sierra, you owe this forum an apology for publishing a story which has been proven untrue.

I think it's as the author of the article portrays it. She walked in and because she's African-American, the poll worker assumed she was a Democrat.

Probably happens all the time.