Republicans are determined to destroy free and open elections. I just walked out of the Republican caucus without voting.
Let’s start with the fact that I am a registered Republican and have my voter registration card. I went online and the first site I found would not disclose where the caucus was for my district until I had filled out a “Caucus Registration Form” that required that I give the party personal information — my phone number and email address.
I also had to agree to receive emails and texts from the party. That stopped me in my tracks. Why should I agree to receiving emails and texts when our own state legislators (almost all of whom are dyed-in-the wool Republicans) refuse to share their official calendars with us?
But I continued to do my due diligence by going online and reviewing all the candidates (who had bothered to enter a profile online) and their positions on various issues. I knew who I wanted to vote for.
At 6:30 p.m. I drove to the high school where the voting was to take place. I had high hopes that I could present my voter registration card, which clearly states that I was registered as a Republican. But no, at the caucus site, there was an even more onerous registration form that asked for a driver license number and the last four digits of my Social Security number. What do they need that for? And, again, I would not be permitted to vote unless I agreed to receive texts and emails from the party.
In short, the Utah Republican Party is doing its utmost to screen its political base and to limit access to voting to only those who are willing to subscribe to their increasingly elitist views.
The Republicans are not interested in free and open elections. Over the years they have tightened the reins — first by eliminating open primaries, then by forcing party affiliation be declared earlier and earlier before elections. And tonight they made voting in their own caucuses by registered Republican voters contingent upon even more restrictions.
They are not interested in public debate or compromise. They are not interested in listening to their constituents. They are not interested in governing. Utah Republican candidates have become almost purely obstructionist to any idea, regardless of validity or worthiness, if it is not sponsored by one of its own.
And for many issues, they decry a proposed solution, but refuse to offer an alternative plan. Not only do they target Democrats, they dismantle or make major modifications to any worthwhile legislation that is passed by referendum (i.e., legalization of medical marijuana, access to federal funds for Medicaid for low-income families, restructuring voting district maps). And they desperately want to make referendums even more difficult to pass. In short, they want it their way.
Is that really the “Utah Way?”
Barbara Watkins, Draper
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