Agenda - 05-05-2005-1b - Laserfiche WebLink

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W] representation for all citizens in orange county is complicated by the fact that we are traditionally a Democratic county and that our county government is almost always chosen by Democratic voters in our primary and runoff elections. Thus, a candidate who might win the support of a majority of voters in the November gen ral elections will not ordinarily appear on the ballot unless she is first Arc - approved by the voters of the Democratic Party in the May primary, As a Democrat, I cannot entirely deprecate this advantage; as a cibr)cn, however, I must question the strengthening of my patty when it means a weakening of democracy; but, both as a eitiren and as a Democrat, I do demand at least that my electoral system and my party invite the participation of the broadest segment of voters meaningfully possible. Because we have not done this in the past, we Democrats are faced this year with a situation which could recur to the detriment of our party, even if to Jhe benc[ft of our democracy -- the defection of one of our merabom willing to seek election without the benefit of patty nomination, Whether or not you as Democrats support this unpr„ccdcnted independent candidacy, I urge you to appreciate the idealistic motivation behind it, and to respond by expanding access to our primaries in order to protect their long -term viability. One Marie Marcopoulos may hc salutary, but a tradition of similar independont candidates could doom local primaries and parties to irrelevancy, and probably doom county 80vetnmemt to chaos. My proposal for reopening our county primary elections is one which I am certain you will not hear again this evening, and so I ask you to give one last ounce of patience to consider it It involves a procedure called focused voting, which permits the individual elector to votc for one less than ilea number of vacturo w to be filled— which requires, in other words, that the voter focus her choice on a more limited number of preferred candidates, simultaneously leaving a chance for other veers to give greater weight to their stronger e=at, T not of this simple technique is to make slate voting more difficult, and thus to create Opportunities groups within the clectarate to place a greater variety of individual t candidates nal independent offi�nInth 'dates that 0=0 is carnty in 1991, a focused voting scheme would offer an assuran PO ndepn a Welcome play for them witbin the political party system. In the same context, focused voting could assure rural ms,dcnts and othcr undompmscrrted groups that our government's and our poop lc's commitment is not to arbitrarily exclude, that our commitment is to offer every citizen a fair chance to participate, Do we have to make those changes? It is by my estimate unlilely that a oourt would foto expand the size entadve quality or our parry primaries. But we V411 all lose if we of our County Commission or improve the repres On Of ell do not change. Ultimately, the corrocmcss of our gavemmemal decisions depends �° Do we haven make these ralcvant points of view, ands govcmmc'rt which excludes governs blindly and wrongly, changes? can we affard to plzn for the development of our remaining rural land without assuring ourselves that we will understand tire history and traditions which it represents? Can we afford to pursue the economic developmtxd of air cocrvnunity without guaranteeing the utmost attention to the eiti=IS who most need its benefits? Cal we hope to work together as a county when any decision which disparately impacts any segment of Our jurisd etion, whether it be siting of dumps or watersheds+ funding of schools and other far liars or protection of agriegitnral prosperity, is grc t d with suspicion by large bloc¢ of citizens who be the field is skewed tasaiast the inm matte ands it Of Our I think we do have to change our system of'rcp csentation I think that the quality I think that vm deserve the best. I hope that your cfrorts as Comrnissioners in ta� of et attention and wyour flood In improventonts which assure us the best And in that spirit, 1 thank yet again Y�r wok