"Count My Vote" Distances Election System from Voters

Utah is embroiled in contention over its elections. Our caucus system to select election candidates is under attack from the Count My Vote (CMV) initiative. Under former governor Mike Leavitt, CMV intends to take over Utah elections, end our neighborhood participation, and dump Utah into political primaries -- the big money, battle-to-the-booth brawls that mimic national elections. CMV splays slogans, platitudes, and catch phrases across the media, but what they are not giving us is a straight story. They want us to abandon self-government for the power, prestige, and patronage behind this initiative. A compromise has emerged to head off the takeover. The Utah Senate backed the compromise, and the caucus system, in last Thursday's near-unanimous 26 to 2 vote to keep Senate Bill 54, the compromise, alive in the legislative process.

The underlying problem in this tug-of-war is poor participation in elections, both state and national. Voter participation is down in Utah, and nationwide. "Why" is up for grabs: too many distractions, increased apathy, less personal responsibility for freedom, increased "government-gimme," despair? It's hard to say.

The national elections give a snapshot of the problem. Utah performed poorly in 2012. Eighty percent of registered voters cast ballots, but half a million unaffiliated voters bailed, for an overall total of 57 percent, according to the Salt Lake Tribune. Utah is among the bottom 10 states for national voter turnout, and Count My Vote proponents blame the caucus system. They promise to involve more people in the selection process and increase voter turnout. While everyone wants that, several state senators say there is nothing in Count My Vote to produce those benefits.
Many states, such as California and Connecticut, previously had caucus-type procedures and now mourn their abandonment. States that switched to primaries got less voter involvement, not more, according to Curt Bramble, sponsor of SB 54.
Why do Utahns slouch at the polls? With our one main party, too many complacently believe that a Republican is a Republican is a Republican -- all vanilla. Not so. Republicans rival the BYU Creamery for flavors: liberal, conservative, libertarian, constitutional, progressive, moderate and uninvolved, for starters. The opposite ends of the Republican Party vary as much as baseball and ballet, Ferraris and Jeeps. You cannot be just a Republican. You may disagree vehemently with the flavor of the Republican running; chocolate is not strawberry, you know. You get involved with politics in Utah for the same reason you make yourself part of any trip to the Creamery: to be sure you get the flavor you want.
Count My Vote rankles the informed. Supporters collecting petition signatures to put Count My Vote on the 2014 ballot are backed with big bucks -- thus the sardonic title Buy My Vote -- and the average Joe drinking the poisoned Kool-Aid doesn't "get" the issue. Signatures piled onto CMV petitions at a recent gun show in St. George, as those uninformed on the issue and seduced by the two-second spiel to "make their vote count," mindlessly gripped the pen and signed on the dotted line.
When questioned, few understood the initiative, but signed anyway: "Hey, it's a Republican thing! Can't be bad, right?" Those abreast of the issue ground their teeth and remembered anew why we must understand our governing system to make wise choices.
Voters must also have accurate information to choose wisely, and they aren't getting it from Count My Vote. Not only is there no evidence that a switch to primaries will produce greater voter involvement, but the current caucus system does not deny people a voice, as CMV advocates claim, it gives them one. We have some obvious deception here, and Count My Vote is not playing a fair ball game.
The mood in the Senate chambers for last Thursday's hearing on SB 54 was overwhelmingly positive, as the vote totals showed. Utah's leaders obviously recognize the value of the caucus system and want to keep it. That's a clear message to us to do the same.

Get it Right: And the winner is ...

August 20, 2013   • 

 

 "Get it Right" is a new weekly column that now appears in the Daily Herald and online at heraldextra.com each Tuesday. It discusses conservative viewpoints important to Utah Valley residents, written by community columnist Pamela Romney Openshaw.

The final results are in from last week's Utah primary elections. The winner was Apathy, followed by It's A Nuisance running a close second. Third out of the five candidates was Don't Bother Me, with What Good Does It Do? taking fourth place. Trailing a distant fifth in the race was Let's Get Involved.
All the candidates campaigned hard. Apathy ran his campaign with the slogan "Everything's running just swell -- always has, always will," and voters obviously liked his message. It's A Nuisance passed out free door mats throughout the county bearing the motto: "What are you bugging me for?" Onlookers report seeing these doormats at the front doors of many local residents. Don't Bother Me ran a vigorous campaign, giving out free movie tickets for Aug. 13 and directions to the best picnic sites, which were sure to be filled on that date. His voter message to register the car, hike Timp, or paint the garage that day, instead of vote, resonated well with residents.
What Good Does It Do? didn't fare well in the vote. Voting analysts say his negative manner and black cloud campaign style left a good many voters wishing he'd have vacated the primaries. According to man-on-the-street interviews, voters far preferred the emotionally uninvolved messages of the three front-running candidates. Analysts speculate that voters prefer that their political non-involvement be guilt free. They suggest that What Good Does It Do? makes everyone uncomfortable with his campaign slogan: "Nobody ever cares, especially about the primaries." In reality, feedback from citizen groups suggests we should all just ignore voting day and let those who have nothing else to do be our collective voice.
Record-setting low votes were recorded for Let's Get Involved. His campaign message "We can make a difference!" resonated poorly with the average voter. Despite his limited but highly dedicated core constituents who waved signs, danced at intersections, talked and walked, held home meetings and studied the issues, his campaign lacked widespread support. The campaign messages of Apathy, It's a Nuisance and Don't Bother Me seemed to resonate much better with the voters.
This matter of the campaign for Let's Get Involved deserves further analysis. He has run for office before -- actually, he has run at every local election in memory. While his support ebbs and flows, he never draws the numbers needed to put him into office. This year, Let's Get Involved added a new wrinkle to his campaign rhetoric. While in the past he has focused on improving local outcomes for the city and county, this year the phrase "The U.S. Constitution is in trouble and we need to save it" surfaced over and over among his support base. He and his staff played hard on the idea that we have a national charter and it's "going down the drain," as they put it. Frequent ads emphasized their message: "If we don't act soon, it will be too late." Home meetings took on a revivalist atmosphere as locals drummed the need for action throughout the months building up to last week's vote. Let's Get Involved expressed disappointment that his new campaign direction failed to sway voters in the Apathy camp, in particular, or substantially expand the numbers in his active voter pool.
Asked about the future, Apathy said he is confident his message will continue to dominate the election process. The campaign staff for It's A Nuisance did not return our call. Don't Bother Me asked to be taken off our calling list, and What Good Does It Do? sent a lengthy email message about the uselessness of the entire election cycle. Despite his repeatedly poor showing in the voting booth, Let's Get Involved says he plans to start working on the next election right away. You have to give the guy credit -- he never gives up!

• Pamela Romney Openshaw is a Utah Valley speaker and author of "Promises of the Constitution" and "Lessons of the Constitution for Family and Home School Study." She writes the weekly column "Get it Right" for the Daily Herald and for heraldextra.com. To reach Pamela, you can contact her through her website, PromisesoftheConstitution.com or by email at openshawenterprises@gmail.com.