Many of us often assume that most of our elected officials do not have “doing what is right” as their top priority, but are primarily interested in protecting their power. We would like to think that our representatives are trying to do what is fair and just, but with all the complexities involved in politics it is often hard to tell.

Well, recently, we were presented with an extraordinary clear view of who is in our state legislature to do what is right and who is there simply for the sake of wielding power.

On Feb. 1 a bill called the Voter Choice Act was presented on the House floor. What the bill addressed was the fact that Georgia is currently rated dead last of all 50 states in terms of the number of signatures required for a third party to get on the ballot in a non-statewide election.

In fact, the majority of Georgians didn't have a choice in one of their representative's last election. All this bill would do is move Georgia up to the 40th worst state in the country in ballot access.

Instead of voting on the bill, House members used one of their many procedural tricks and voted, 2 to 1, to table the bill, which allows them to keep the current law without even having the courage to vote the new bill down.

Not a single valid reason was given not to support the bill. Many states have much less restrictive ballot access and they are not overrun with third parties (voters still have the final say).

Trying to find a plausible reason to attack the bill, many politicians raised false concerns over third parties not holding primaries. Third parties would love to have primaries, but a current separate law forbids it.

Bottom line, this is not a very important bill for most Georgians, but that is exactly what makes it such a good test.

It's fairly easy for politicians to do the right thing when they're under pressure from their constituents, but they know that this bill is not being followed by the majority of voters, so it is safe for them to put personal interest ahead of doing what's right.

The ironic part is that if the bill did pass it would have little to no effect of jeopardizing their incumbency.

At least this vote to table the Voter Choice Act gives us a clear and straightforward indicator of who the good guys are and who the typical politicians are.

Jason Butler
jason.butler@mindspring.com

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