You Don’t Have to Vote for Akaka OR Case

Contrary to what the Democratic Party and the mass media would want us to believe, “one doesn’t need to vote ONLY in the Democratic Primary or all your votes will be invalid.” One can vote in ANY primary -- but ONLY in one primary. That deliberate confusion/deception results in 20% of the ballots being spoiled every primary election, with the likelihood that it could go even higher for this particular primary election, with the resulting frustration for voters and poll workers resulting in even lower subsequent voter turnouts.

Elections are not rocket science -- as the orientation classes for the Office of Elections makes them out to be. Even children in kindergarten can successfully determine who the leader is among them -- unless of course, that unanimity is overruled by the teacher fearing a threat to her own authority in the classroom.

Many don’t want to bother voting because they believe that they MUST vote in every contest and not just for the single best person running in ANY race, as their best vote. Like in most things in life, it doesn’t matter how much one does -- as it does how well one does it. So the voter’s obligation is not just to vote for anybody they’ve seen the name before, but to vote for the person they know best to participate in public discussions and decisions -- preferably those who might see things in a way that they could not themselves.

For many people, that would be Linda Lingle -- as the person who would make the biggest difference if one had to vote for only one person in Hawaii who will make the biggest difference. There’s only one governor of Hawaii -- while there are 100 US senators and 500 US representatives. Then after one makes that most important vote, one has to stay within the color-coded party selections -- but that doesn’t mean that one has to vote for every person within that party either.

Having worked at the polls at which some people feel that they have a right to vote in every party -- and every race as their “right,” what is unclear is that they have a right to choose to participate in ANY, but only ONE -- as their PRIMARY choice. And so from a decision standpoint, one has to first determine the ONE person who makes the biggest difference on the political scene in Hawaii.

That ONE vote is enough to make the biggest difference.

As a polling place chair, I was frequently asked, “I don’t know any of these people; how should I vote?” My best advice was not to, and let those who are best-informed make that decision, rather than arbitrarily and thoughtlessly canceling out somebody’s very intelligent choice. That is the primary reason we have bad government and thoughtless decisions.

At election time, a lot of manipulators know that some people are very vulnerable to misinformation -- and of course, hope to exploit it. Just make your best vote and walk away any time you want to after that.