Inbox

[June 17th, 2009]

DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS ARE WORTH FIGHTING FOR
Thank you for the article “Minor Parties’ Major Roadblock” [WW, June 10, 2009].

As the only citizen to testify at the hearing in the Oregon Senate on SB 326, I found your coverage timely and important.

But Senator Devlin and fellow Democrats have not only shut off discussion of House Bill 2414 and Senate Bill 326, as you report; Devlin has, which is of greater significance in the fight for fair and democratic elections, blocked Senate Bill 29.

Senate Bill 29 would allow jurisdictions to use a ranked ballot, as described in the Oregon Constitution, that would truly break the two-party system and allow third parties to fairly compete with the two major parties. Voters would be able to specify their first, second, and third choices, eliminating the so-called “spoiler” effect that keeps people from voting for or running as a candidate [from] a third party.

Because Senator Devlin has been a problem for election reform this session, as you’ve so well illustrated, the Pacific Green Party has been recruiting candidates to run against him for his Senate seat. We are working with other minor parties to put up candidates on his left and center, while asking the far right parties to stay out. Perhaps he will see directly how spoiling an election really works and thus see the need for reforming our election system even though his big union backers provide him with large donations checks I affectionately call “expensive blinders.”

Seth Woolley
2008 Pacific Green Party Candidate for Secretary of State