The following is the comment I left on the Star Tribune’s website recently. Thought I would post it here for food-for-thought and discussion.
The fairest system in elections we can have is a straight primary, like Minneapolis and St. Paul (and most municipalities) do in their municipal and school board elections. If 30 people want to run for U.S. Senate, let them. Only the top two make it out of the primary and go on to the General Election. If a 3rd party or independent candidate is good enough to knock one of the two party candidates off, good for them. We will have a majority rule if we narrow it down in the primary process to the best of two. Furthermore, the Constitution puts checks and balances in place to prevent the tyranny of the majority. It does not stipulate that elections need to be won by a 50%+1 majority vote. If the framers wanted that, they would have written that in to begin with. Lastly, if I want to vote for Al Franken, I should be able to vote for Al Franken – not vote for Al Franken via Dean Barkley. That does not make any sense.
Jeffrey S. Williams
