This post is long overdue, but still fascinating - to me, at least.
In last week's DC's mayoral election, nearly one-in-four voters cast their vote by write-in for incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty, who had decidedly lost his primary bid 53 to 46% to his opponent, and the ultimate victor, Vincent Gray. That's right, in the final election, twenty-three percent of votes were taken by a write-in candidate, who explicitly stated he was not pursuing a write-in campaign, and conceded to Gray well over a month earlier. Talk about a divided city!
For me, there are many 'what if's?' that I realize a well-run democracy cannot accomodate. For example, in the primary, Republicans, Independents, and the Statehood Green party could not obviously not vote for Fenty, but may have indeed considered him the best candidate. It is also interesting, because many Fenty supporters gave their vote to Gray in the final election, even though he was not their candidate, but was the best of the choices. I suppose I'm asking, what if there were not primary party elections, but rather the whole city votes the best candidate? Makes me question party politics at all in this day and age. And particularly in this city of 95+% registered Democrats.
I, myself, was at a loss to support Gray, but did not have other viable options. I would not vote for the other party candidates, as I did not think they had experience or merit; I also did not want to write-in Fenty (though he was my choice) because he explicitly said he was not seeking a write-in. In the end, I abstained on my mayoral vote on my ballot, which was a very painful and difficult call - and one that I'm not even sure I was comfortable doing. My thinking was, "I will not explicitly support Gray with my vote, but nor will I vote for another candidate that I think is no good; nor will I vote for a candidate who is not running. My silence is my tacit dissent." But what good is tacit dissent, if nobody hears it?
As it happens, write-in non-candidate Fenty won three precincts in my ward, and won two precincts each in two other wards. As mentioned, overall, twenty-three percent of the votes went to non-candidate Fenty - not bad for someone who is not even running!
For me, there are many 'what if's?' that I realize a well-run democracy cannot accommodate. For example, in the primary, Republicans, Independents, and the Statehood Green party could not obviously not vote for Fenty
ReplyDeleteOther jurisdictions (like VA, where I used to be an election officer) allow people to vote in primaries who are not registered party members; they just can't vote in more than one primary.
I've never liked that much myself, but then I've always viewed primaries as being the private business of parties, their process for choosing who will represent them. Yes, it's an election, but it's an election within a group. I don't think Republicans should be able to choose a Democratic candidate any more than I think I ought to be able to choose the sexton of a church I don't belong to or the board of directors of a company I don't own stock in.
The thing is, people *could* vote for Fenty if they wanted to. Democrats could have selected him as their candidate. They didn't. He could have run as an independent--probably not on the ballot, as I imagine there wasn't time after the Democratic primary result to get the necessary signatures, but as a write in, like Murkowski in Alaska. Just because someone is favoured by political demographics doesn't mean they will win the election--just look at the Coakley-Brown race in Massachusetts!
Republicans, Greens, etc.--they all get to vote. It's just that in the District there aren't enough of them to vote someone into office unless a lot of Democrats like him or her as well. And not allowing parties to have primaries won't change that.
I think the problem is not that democracy doesn't have enough alternatives or that primaries deny voters choices. I think the problem, my dear friend, is that the candidate you supported simply lost. And you've gotten through denial and anger and are somewhere between bargaining and depression. :-\
You make good points - as usual. And yes, my candidate lost, and I am bruised by that. However, I do think it is quite remarkable that Fenty got 23% of the vote in an election where he was not seeking candidacy - write-in or otherwise. And with DC's overwhelming Democratic majority, party politics has some unique flaws.
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