Freedom To Vote

I heard on the news this morning that in Ohio they are making it mandatory that you sign a statement saying you believe in the whatever parties missions and goals before you can change your political party affiliation. http://www.sos.state.oh.us/SOS/Upload/elections/directives/2010/Dir2010-44.pdf (link to the directive if you are interested.)

Hold on just one minute, now it makes sense but the problem is that I should not have to do it. If I want to vote to switch my vote to a particular party just because I like their colors it should be my choice my right my freedom. But wait it gets better than this, did you know that there is know constitutional right to vote. The constitution only speaks to voting in the sense of what conditions cannot be used in determining whether or not you can vote, so inadvertently there is assumed a right to vote.

That being said what if I do not agree with the parties affiliations but I still like their candidate the best, should I not be allowed to vote for him. The last I checked I did not need a sound reason or permission of someone I don't know to vote so this law drives me insane. Just to make sure that I was not losing my mind I called the Secretary of States office for clarification. After talking to the elections official I was even more disenchanted with the state of elections laws and procedures. The law to sign this political party affiliation has been on the books since 1995 (Ohio Code 35-13.19). Again I'm appalled because I don't even know if I've signed such a statement. I've been exercising my right to vote since 1997 when I turned 18 and I really don't even know what it is I may have said I believe in. This is a horrific statement if ever there was one under this current state of affairs. At this point we should all know what we believe in and where we stand. This law in some sense seems to make it wrong to believe in people. When I vote I don't vote parties and affiliations I vote for people and this law clearly does not let my exercise my right to vote in the manner in which I want. Essentially this law is telling me how to vote because it limits my options of potential candidates. I honestly have never understood why a person could not just choose between all the candidates in the market. In a world as diverse as ours are 2 majority parties really going to serve the needs of all the people. Clearly in the grand scheme of thing this law is no big deal and is only enforced at the whim of poll workers and the administration depending on their mood. Really the only reason the issue is even being forced now in Ohio at this point is because the Supreme Court recently ruled that Ohio's procedure for creating new political parties in the state is unconstitutional, therefore this means any Tom, Dick, and Harry who has chosen to start a political party can and now the Secretary of State is forced to put them on the ballot. Now this change of events makes me extremely happy but that is another day and another time.

Magic Out.