Nov Election: Why You Should Boycott the Statewide Partisan Races

The June primary has come and gone with the predictable results, desired by the establishment. Because of Prop. 14 ( the Top-Two Primary), no candidates of the small parties will be on the ballot for state-wide office in the November general election, nor for any local partisan office within Alameda County. So much for the lies of the Prop. 14 proponents about increased choices. Prop. 14 even took away the possibility of the write-in option, so the sham democracy that now exists should be obvious to anyone.

Given this shameful situation, we thought much about what our position should be regarding the partisan races for the November election. We recommend that people BOYCOTT the statewide partisan contests in the November election. (Specifically, the following 7 statewide offices: Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Secretary of State, Controller, Treasurer, Attorney General, and Insurance Commissioner.) And also most of the other partisan offices: U.S. Congress, State Senate, State Assembly (unless you decide to vote in the District 15 contest - see writeup), and State Board of Equalization.

Please also note that specific information about the candidates running in these races was provided in our June primary Voter Guide, which is available on the internet, at: http://acgreens.wordpress.com/voter-guides/.

Boycotting the statewide partisan races is not much of a sacrifice, since only candidates of the two major wings of the money party will be on the ballot. We hope that a visible drop in the vote totals in these races will make a statement against Prop. 14.

In addition, California, as the Green Party has done for many years, also needs to start looking at proven alternatives to the failing electoral system we currently have. For example, most of western Europe uses the “proportional representation” election system with great success, and with high voter turnout that often exceeds 80 percent. (For more details, please see: http://www.fairvote. org/reforms/fair-representation-voting/).

We do want to be absolutely clear that we are NOT asking people not to vote at all. There are important ballot measures and worthwhile local non-partisan candidates that are worth supporting. So please DO VOTE—but with the exception of the above-listed partisan races!

------------
For more information on Top Two see:

Monstrous Ruling in CA Case Challenging Top Two
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/08/27/18720425.php

and

California’s Top-Two Primary Eliminates Third-Party Rivals
by Ellen Brown
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/06/10/18757172.php