“May I, as an independent voter, express my disgust with just two among several aspects of our electoral process?

Firstly, it is with certain election officials who have been quoted in some newspapers sniveling because they had to expend a little extra effort and time processing lawfully generated write-in votes as is their duty under law.

Secondly, and primarily, it is with Alabama’s obscenely overly restrictive ballot access law which was instituted by democratic and republican legislators with the intent of making our elections excusive to just them, and shutting out of the process other candidates who offer different and frequently better ideas on how to govern. This is to the detriment of Alabamians who don’t hear those views expressed as a direct consequence of those candidates being denied ballot and debate access.

Those few voters who found ways to access the views of minor party candidates expressed their support for them at the ballot box, and now the tally of their votes seems to be a mystery.

The BHAM News is printing the following version of my LTE sent earlier today. This is a HOT topic and good letters sent addressing it are likely to be printed. Please write one….we desperately need to be heard on this one.

Edited Version:

Dear Editor,

In light of the recent surge Alabama saw in write-in votes cast in the general election and the ensuing outcry from poll workers to ban the practice, I’d like to offer the following perspective and possible solution.

The ballot access laws are the real problem, one created solely by the government.

Third party and independent candidates for statewide office must collect around 41,300 registered voter signatures in order to have their name placed on the ballot. Neither of the two major parties has to meet this requirement.

And what is the first solution we see put forth to address the problem?

“Let’s BAN it!” Politicians would actually seek to further restrict the citizen’s right to vote and make it so that our votes count only if we cast it for them. That’s like saying you can have any flavor ice cream you want as long as it’s vanilla.

As a voter and former write-in candidate for Governor I find that mentality most offensive.

The fact that so many write-in votes were cast, be they for me, Roy Moore, Charles Barkley or someone else should serve as a clear warning that citizens are tired of this two-party system. We want more choices on the ballot NOT LESS. We should demand that our elections process at least be as fair and equitable as the one in Iraq where there were 75 political parties and 111 candidates on the ballot in the last election.

Is that too much to ask?

Respectfully Submitted,
Loretta Nall

Please consider writing your own.

It royally pissed me off when I found out that I had 189 votes cast for me in Shelby Co. which placed me dead center between Moore and Barkley. I was the only one running a write-in campaign and they could not be bothered to report on me even though I had 89 more votes than one of those they reported on who wasn’t even running.

I am dead set on running a write-in campaign every election until the ballot access laws are changed. It sickens me that the first solution offered is to ban write-in votes. The ballot access laws are the problem. I am encouraging people to write LTE’s slamming the ballot access laws and the lazy, whiny poll workers. I hope this is enough to tick everyone off to the point of ACTION! If this mentality keeps up then pretty soon your vote won’t count if you declilne to vote for the state sanctioned candidates. See, Iraq does have better laws than we do here in Alabamastan.