Non-partisan elections give fair and open voter representation

The petition to the Charter Review Commission to amend the charter concerning the election of County Commissioners is not with an objective of having non-partisan elections. The purpose of that revision to the charter is with an objective of having the 48 percent of the disenfranchised voters in Alachua County to have an opportunity to cast a meaningful ballot for a County Commissioner to represent them.

We have an unusual political demographic in Alachua County. The registered Democrats outnumber the registered Republicans by almost two-to-one. That results in the selection of the successful County Commissioner to occur at the Democratic primary in August. It has for decades. Therefore, the 25-plus percent of Republicans and the 25-minus percent of “Other” registrations are then precluded in casting a meaningful ballot for their Commission representative as Florida is a closed primary state. This charter revision should be heralded as a big win. 

This does not affect the political parties but very minimally. Simply stated, in a non-partisan election environment, the candidate cannot run with any directly stated political association. That is all there is to it.

The role of the political parties is virtually unchanged. In a non-partisan environment they can:  (1) “Vet” and select specific candidates whom they want to encourage to run; (2) Advise and consult on all campaign strategies to win elections; (3) Openly promote the merits of a candidate for election; (4) Make the same generous financial contributions to campaigns that they can now do; (5) Propose an entire “ticket” of candidates that are supported by the “XXX” Party; (6) Offer any post-election advise to a successful candidate that they wish.

Clearly there is no attempt, to use an old and tired cliché, to take the politics out of politics.

One person has said this is an attempt to elect more Republicans. How inept does this Democrat believe our Democratic party is when the Democrats outnumber the Republicans by almost two-to-one? Others claim that there are common values ascribed to each party, which may be true in some places but it not uncommon with our current County Commission, all of whom are Democrats, to believe that there are days when they can’t agree if it is a nice one or not.

By the way, if it matters to anyone, I as the person who filed this petition with the Charter Review Commission, am a registered Democrat. It should not matter as this isn’t about party politics. It is about fair and open elections.

Rod Tuttle

Gainesville, Fla.