[R-G] Prop. 62 Would Squelch Third Parties in California

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

Prop. 62 would squelch innovation in state's politics
By Richard Winger

<http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/9975285.htm?1c>
Posted on Thu, Oct. 21, 2004

A well-meaning group of former and current office holders has placed 
the "Voter Choice Open Primary," Proposition 62, on our ballot.

They say it will make the Legislature work better by enabling more 
moderates to win office. The results of recent elections suggest 
otherwise. And worse, Proposition 62 will trample on the rights of 
minority parties, a vital source of fresh political thinking.

Proposition 62 provides that in elections for Congress and state 
office, all voters would receive the same ballot in the June primary. 
The ballot would contain all the candidates for those offices, 
regardless of party. Then, only the top two vote-getters would appear 
on the November ballot.

The Proposition 62 backers are mostly the same people who placed 
Proposition 198 on the 1996 ballot. Proposition 198, the "blanket 
primary," put into effect the same primary ballot suggested by 
Proposition 62.

The only difference was that Proposition 198 let the top vote-getter 
from each party into the November ballot, instead of just the top two 
candidates. The "blanket primary" was used in the primaries of 1998 
and 2000, and then later in 2000 was overturned by the U.S. Supreme 
Court.

Proposition 62 backers say their system would elect a more moderate 
set of legislators. But all of our state legislators who held office 
during the 1999-2002 period had been elected in the blanket-primary 
system, as was Gov. Gray Davis in 1998.

Partisanship was just as rife then as it had been earlier.

Proposition 62 backers claim that the current primary system makes it 
impossible for moderates to win statewide primaries. They say Gov. 
Arnold Schwarzenegger could not have won a semi-closed primary. 
Recall-election data shows how wrong that is.

Approximately 3.5 million registered Republicans voted in the recall. 
Conservative Republican Tom McClintock received 1.2 million votes, 
whereas Schwarzenegger, perceived as a moderate Republican, received 
4.2 million. It is obvious that most Republicans who voted cast a 
vote for Schwarzenegger, not McClintock.

Proposition 62 backers also say the current semi-closed primary 
system is unfair to independent voters. However, independent voters 
are now free to choose either a Democratic or Republican primary 
ballot. An independent in an overwhelmingly Republican district is 
free to choose a Republican primary ballot.

The worst aspect of Proposition 62 is that it confines the 
general-election ballot to only two candidates. Californians would 
have fewer choices on their November ballots for Congress than the 
voters of any other state. The 700,000 members of minor parties would 
virtually never have anyone from their own party to vote for in 
November.

This is not only unfair, it is probably unconstitutional. The U.S. 
Supreme Court has issued nine opinions that struck down state 
election laws that kept minor-party and independent candidates off 
the November ballot.

Minor parties raise new ideas and test their voter appeal. Virtually 
all important innovations in government policy were first publicized 
by minor parties.

Proposition 62 aims at the wrong target. What California needs to 
make our congressional and state elections more competitive is reform 
of redistricting. Proposition 62 does not provide redistricting 
reform. It will do more damage than it does good.

RICHARD WINGER is editor of Ballot Access News 
(www.ballot-access.org), a non-partisan newsletter reporting on 
difficulties facing candidates trying to get on ballots across the 
country.
-- 
Yoshie

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