Editor, Times-Union: This section has recently been flooded with letters advising who to choose in the upcoming primary elections. Instead, I suggest something else. If you can browse the Internet or go to the library (for print version) for one of Gary Gerard’s past News Views articles, the one discussing ideological purity might be a more pragmatic piece of advice for your upcoming trip to the polls. It was posted March 28, 2014 (if you’re looking through News Views archives online) and printed March 29, 2014. I’ll paraphrase the two important things Gary suggested and add my slant. #1 - VOTE! Voter turnout is abysmal. I’m reaching out to you because I’m part of the problem. I’m just as guilty as millions of other Americans. I’ve missed an embarrassing number of primary elections and November election dates that were not general elections. For those of you who share my embarrassment and you’re laughing up your sleeve because I was actually crazy enough to own up in a public forum, ask yourselves this question: How many years – among the last 10 years – have you gone without filling out an NCAA basketball tournament bracket for an office pool? If the number is less than the number of elections where you did not show up to the polls, I hope that puts things in perspective for those of us who’ve missed fewer NCAA tournament pools than elections. Let’s do our part to improve voter turnout. Let’s start this turnaround with the primary elections on May 6. It’s the important launching pad for the November elections! Skip a lunch, get up earlier, make the stop on your way home from work if the polls are still open. There are absentee ballots you can get locally if travel is a constraint. Conservatives, moderates and liberals who stay home on election day will all find one thing in common. If you research what types of people comprise the highest voter turnout percentages each political group will sadly discover their valued input is, consequently, not completely nor accurately represented. #2 – Do your homework and avoid a singular issue as your basis for each ballot choice you make! It’s easier than you think. This is the rejoinder for those of you who might think you don’t know enough about the issues, or might say there are no worthy candidates on the ballot (so why vote, right?). You don't have to know enough to be the back-up host of “Face The Nation” either. Gary Gerard illustrated a sample of some of our most important issues driving the election of a candidate and how to determine your vote based on a very simple and quantifiable process. Go back and check it out. The best thing about this piece of advice he gives is that it distributes the weight of your most important values in order to make your best voting choice. It also makes a nice segue to the perils of straight-ticket voting, something both sides of the aisle do. The consequences of that type of voting is its lack of pragmatism. It puts people in office that give voters comfort since they share values but they sometimes lack knowledge of law, economics, negotiation and – in the case of executive branch candidates – leadership. How often does a candidate, with the ideological purity that Gerard discusses, manipulate the electorate by using their stance on a singular issue to elevate them to a position that exceeds their technical competence in one or more aspects of elected legislature or executive leadership? Couldn't we collectively fill a book? When I do my research and make my trek to the polls May 6 I'm probably going to confirm two hunches I currently have. First, it will probably fit into my schedule more easily than I've rationalized in missed elections past and, second, it will probably be less complex than researching RPI rankings, non-conference road wins against ranked opponents and all the other fluff we use to determine who should advance in our NCAA basketball tournament brackets. Chip Davenport Warsaw, via email
