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Election Platforms
With the first candidates for local office announcing their intentions in the past few weeks it is time to establish the theme of 2008 - change.
We keep hearing about the change on the national stage and local residents should take that sentiment to heart as the election year heats up.
And the start is a pledge from any candidate wishing to take a seat on the Board of County Commissioners to end single-member districts.
Some of the arguments for such a stance are pretty easy to grasp:
An overwhelming voter mandate from across the county;
The ingrained unfairness of a system in which only constitutional officers and municipal officials actually face all the voters, instead of one-fifth of the populace for commissioners;
A governing system that is economically inefficient with taxpayer dollars;
A rigged governing system appropriate not to the present day, but 25 years ago;
And finally, a return to county-wide voting that would give each voter five commissioners instead of one.
But the final point is this - let elected officials and candidates explain how single-member districts are the best route for the county.
That will put the stump in the campaign season.







