By John Linden, Reno Gazette Journal, September 11, 2023
Proposition 3, which advocates ranked choice balloting and open primaries, will become part of the Nevada State Constitution if passed in the next general election.
These two ideas are a formula for chaos.
Let’s begin with ranked choice balloting (ranked choice balloting). Do you understand it? Can you explain it? Did you vote for its passage anyway, without understanding it or being able to explain it?
Here is how it works. This is an electoral system which allows you to vote for more than one candidate. You fill out your ballot by listing your first, second or third choice, or more. If one candidate gets 51% or more of the first-choice votes, he wins outright.
But, if no one gets a majority of the first-place votes, let the games begin! This will now trigger a new counting process, eliminating the lowest candidate, giving his/her ballots to the second-choice candidate. So, if your candidate that you placed first is eliminated, then your vote goes to the second-choice candidate. If the second-choice candidate on your ballot is eliminated, then your ballot goes to your third-choice candidate, etc. until someone obtains a majority. Talk about redistribution of wealth!
This system is so chaotic that any average voter will be so confused that he/she couldn’t count the ballots correctly. Hell will freeze over before the ballots are correctly tabulated and your vote is so watered down that you may as well forget about knowing the voting results for a week or two. This voting system is the most absurd idea that has made its way to the voters since the Pet Rock. Do you understand ranked choice balloting now? Do you want to add more chaos to an already distressed Nevada voting process, with mail-in ballots and ballot harvesting? What has happened to “one person, one vote”?
Now, let’s move on to open primaries. Why should an individual who has declared himself/herself an independent be allowed to tell a Democrat or Republican who they should have on the ballot as their candidate? Why should a rabbi tell a cardinal in the Catholic Church who to vote for as pope? I find it annoying for you to be allowed to tell me who to vote for. If you want to vote in a primary election, join a party of your choice. If you don’t want to be in either party, that is your choice, but party crashers are not welcome in a primary election.
If you feel so strongly about supporting a candidate of any party, join that party and participate. Americans have the right of free association and you should not have the right to demand any say in the decisions of a group which is conducting their own legal activities. There’s an old adage: “Mind your own business.” If an independent candidate is on the ballot, all voters — Democrat, Republican and independent ― have the choice of casting their ballot for any one of the candidates.
Now, here’s the cherry on the cake. Both of these bizarre proposals have been lumped together in one absurd package, known as Proposition 3. If Proposition 3 passes in the next general election, you will rue the day you voted for it. If this passes again in the next general election, it becomes part of the Nevada State Constitution. You may see the day when no member of your party will appear on the ballot. It may very well come to pass that you will see two candidates of the same party on the ballot and no member of the opposite party. If you do not want one-party rule, defeat Proposition 3. Hopefully, this is still Nevada, not California.
Vote no on Proposition 3.
John Linden is a Reno resident.