As a Summit County Democrat, I was dismayed to learn on Sunday, July 21, that our national party would be taking a similar course of action used by the Summit County Democratic Party. What’s that? Selecting future candidates through a committee instead of a vote by the people. Despite recent rhetoric around democracy in peril, it seems the Democratic Party may have been the pot calling the kettle black.

It’s not widely known, but the last contested Democratic Party primary for county commissioner here in Summit was 2008. Since then, the primaries have been either uncontested, or a current sitting commissioner resigns their seat prior to the end of their term so the next commissioner can be appointed through the local party’s vacancy procedures. Commissioners Elisabeth Lawrence, Nina Waters, and Eric Mamula have all gained their seats through the vacancy committee. Democracy in action (sarcasm).

Some of you are probably thinking, “Can’t people get onto the ballot through a signature process?” While that’s true, the deck is stacked against those who try. How? It’s simple really, you require a large volume of signatures from a shrinking subset of the electorate. In a nutshell, current state law requires a signature count that is 10% of the ballots cast in the last primary election for that seat. Here’s the kicker though, while both Democrats and unaffiliated voters can cast ballots in the Democratic Party primary, potential candidates can only gather signatures from registered Democrats. As the unaffiliated ranks continue to grow, getting on a major party primary ballot through the signature process will get more and more difficult. I, for one, will not be voting for any of the committee-chosen candidates selected for me. 

Speaker of the House Julie McCluskie and Sen. Dylan Roberts, can we get this signature process changed in the next legislative session?