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The
The INDEPENDENT, January 18, 2012
INDEPENDENT
Published on the first and third Wednesdays of each month
by The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St.,
Vernonia, OR 97064. Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410.
Deadline is noon the Friday before each issue.
Publisher Clark McGaugh, clark@the-independent.net
Editor Rebecca McGaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net
Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based dyes
Opinion
Voting: Use it or lose it?
Citizens in many countries throughout the world are
passionate about voting, and many have given their
lives in an effort to vote. That kind of voter suppression
doesn’t occur in the United States.
Voter suppression is happening in the U.S., howev-
er, but few Americans seem to be concerned. Under
the guise of preventing voter fraud, a few states have
passed laws with identification requirements that many
people won’t be able to meet.
One has outlawed voter registration drives by volun-
teer organizations such as the League of Women Vot-
ers. A few others have ID requirements that make it im-
possible for students from out of state to vote, because
they are not “permanent residents”. Still others require
voters to present their birth certificates to register, or if
they are already registered, when they go to their
polling place. Others require a state photo ID, which
many elderly or disabled people don’t have; of course
they also need a birth certificate in order to get the
state ID. Again, many elderly people were born at
home and their births may or may not have been filed.
We don’t have any of those impediments in Oregon.
We can pick up a voter registration form at the Post Of-
fice, city hall, the DMV, and other locations. Then we
can fill it out and mail it to the elections office. We don’t
even have to go to a polling place to vote. Our ballots
come to us in the mail more than two weeks before
they are due, so we can fill them out at our leisure.
Then we can either mail them back to the courthouse,
or drop them off at a legal drop site.
Still, few of us vote. Are we too lazy? Is it too easy?
Or are we just willing to let others decide for us?
Out of My Mind…
by Noni Andersen
Ballots are arriving for
the January 31 special
election for Oregon’s First
Congressional District,
and many voters are still
pondering who will re-
ceive their vote. Most of
the ballots will be cast for
Democrat
Suzanne
Bonamici, who was also
nominated by the Independent Party, or Repub-
lican Rob Cornilles. Both of them are Washing-
ton County residents, are married and have fam-
ilies.
Regardless of any differences, and despite
how candidates frame issues during a cam-
paign, any voter who has paid even a modicum
of attention to Congress knows that a candi-
date’s positions will undergo some changes
once they have been elected. Most changes are
minimal, but learning how to maneuver as one of
435 Representatives (or 100 Senators), com-
bined with the pressures of partisan considera-
tions and party mentors, will sometimes result in
changes that are major.
Because of those inevitable pressures, I feel
that candidates’ backgrounds are important be-
cause they can provide some indication of how
those pressures will be handled. For instance:
Have they held elective office? If not, they are
less likely to be effective in the give and take of
policy negotiations. Elective offices, including lo-
cal boards and councils, are usually the incuba-
tors for competent officials in higher positions.
Education is important, too, but not just for ac-
ademic degrees. I’ve known too many outstand-
ing people, both with and without degrees, to
think a degree is the only indication of intelli-
gence. Nevertheless, when a candidate sticks
with higher education long enough to graduate,
that indicates some determination to complete
goals. If a candidate has worked his/her way
through college, I consider that a plus, particu-
larly if they completed post-graduate work.
Work backgrounds are also important, not
what they do, but whether their work pattern
shows increasing responsibility.
Suzanne Bonamici has held increasingly re-
sponsible elective positions, most recently as
state senator; she worked her way through Lane
Community College, the University of Oregon,
and the University of Oregon law school;
worked for Legal Aid, the Federal Trade Com-
mission and in private law practice, a career pat-
tern that has demonstrated increasing responsi-
bility for decision-making.
That responsibility included heading the state
Legislature’s bipartisan redistricting committee,
which, for the first time in six decades, complet-
ed the process, instead of deadlocking and turn-
ing the job over to the Secretary of State. Redis-
tricting legislative districts is one of the thorniest
processes in state government, which is why the
legislature has failed at it for 60 years.
Cornilles has no prior elective experience. He
graduated from Brigham Young University and
eventually started his own business, Game
Please see page 18