Solutions to election attendance

My last column, published Sept. 9, dealt with the real problems that drive poor primary election attendance, and indeed mediocre civic participation. It will take some guts on the part of citizens and their elected and appointed government officials, but here are stand-alone ideas of what we can do.

A) Help increase voter participation in primary elections by legally requiring a “None of the Above” choice in every ballot section. Party big-shots & big money might whine and snivel that they can no longer force “electable” candidates down people’s throats. So what. Let’s empower voters to force political parties to field people-driven candidate choices.

B) Our state’s registration of political affiliation unarguably shows that the majority of Alaska’s population is not being served by state funding of primary elections — grossly contrary to the Alaska constitution. Therefore, let’s lawfully get rid of primary elections.

Fill the void with law that allows organized political parties to rent Alaska’s election voting system. This enables them to honestly pay for their private-club elections of their candidates for forthcoming true elections — that remain publicly funded. Apportionment of rental costs would be in simple proportion to individual party membership. Party candidate elections would naturally become cheaper and more open to candidate choices, instead of being controlled by an elite deciding who is “electable”.

C) Change primary election design and tabulation to the “Instant Run-off” voting construction. This is where a voter selects two or more candidates in the order of preference (first choice, then second choice, then third choice, etc.). Then if the aggregate first choices don’t show a clear winner, it goes to the second choices, and so on. This would generate more interest in voting on one of the current segregated ballot choices (Republican or Democrat & others), and more interest in joining a mainline party by the unaffiliated.

D) Under the authority of Alaska Constitution Article I, require applicants for the PFD to attest (under penalty of perjury) to voting — absentee or otherwise — in the prior year’s public-office elections. Provide a selection of pre-authorized, seriously legitimate reasons (no “my car broke down” or “I forgot” nonsense) for not being able to so attest, which is similarly sworn to. Similar attestations are already enforced concerning residency. Note: selective enforcement of our constitutions to justify corruption exposes enemies of our form of government. A live example is enforcing citizen privileges without equally enforcing citizen responsibilities.

E) Mandate by law that every elected or appointed government official must undergo segments of continuing education about government—including what leadership means in a constitutional republic. Preposterously, most all government officials now show they think leadership means “making the hard decisions for everyone—as advised by knowledgeable experts, lobbyists, and public polling gurus”. Such continuing education would embrace the education of our founding fathers. Our founders learned the difference between an enlightened aristocracy (who do all the thinking and ruling for the benefit of everyone) and government by representatives (who organize their constituents to harvest the fruits of their minds for re-presentation and action).

Real leadership is always the cure for the selfishness and irresponsibility of humans being led towards commonly desired goals. Thinly disguised dictatorship enforced by economic blackmail, egotistical law enforcement, and feel-good propaganda is not.

F) Mandate by law real and practical public education in government. Current Alaska schooling methods — “elements” of government embedded in a couple semesters of social studies — are making citizens who don’t know how to conduct our form of constitutional republic. Consider, as an incremental example, Representative Wes Keller’s idea of mandating the teaching of “constitutionalism”. This would encourage the teaching of the sometimes-contradictory beginnings of our political heritage — rather than the feel-good, processed rah-rah fed our youth in current civics texts. Civic leaders should also lead (I said lead, not force!) adult Alaskans at studying the same expanded material. Why? It’s to make people power — the real thing — triumphant!

Civics education success also requires state certification of civics teachers by testing an educator’s conceptual understanding of why the US founders (and faithful statesmen that followed) wrote and acted as they did. Disguising social engineering as civics education to pacify youth into being “civilized” and obedient to authority figures is a failed policy. It is visibly sending our country into oblivion. This makes cost no object — no object I say! — in enabling average citizens to save our state and nation.

Does our state and nation need saving? The job security blackmail of citizens that is increasingly exerted by corporations and the federal government (through government spending) is making virtual slaves of us all. Fellow citizens, there is no greater enemy to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness than the political cowardice we are now wallowing in. We must find courage to better educate ourselves on the tools each of us must use to make freedom truly mean something.

Stuart Thompson lives in Wasilla. Contact him at lookitover@att.net.