Open Enrollment

Some of us commenters on a recent Shot in the Dark post lamented the lame representation we have at the Legislature and beyond.  I am served by only one Republican, and a moderate one at that, U.S. Congressman Erik Paulsen.  I am otherwise unheard in Washington.  And in St. Paul, what with Governor Dayton, officers Swanson, Richie, Otto and two very safe DFL seats in the Legislature.  Hennepin County?  Mike "Little Caesar" Opat.  School Board?  Seven Democrats.  Mayor? Democrat.  City Council?  Four Democrats.  I should add that I have endorsed and voted for some of these local Democrats, where party is not always the most important consideration.  But I have yet to see a State or Federal case where the Democrat was indeed the better choice, not since Hubert Humphey anyway. 

Now, even some Democrats agree that your zip code shouldn't determine your child's educational fate.  One block can determine if you go to Robbinsdale Armstrong or Minneapolis North or whatever remants of the Minneapolis Public Schools still operate in North Minneapolis.  But zip code can and does shut you out of any influence in St. Paul.

There is one remedy among many regarding schools called Open Enrollment.  We in fact used it to get our kids out of the Robbinsdale Schools, then a basket case in the 1980's.  So I'm wondering now, shouldn't we be able to at least opt our votes out to a neighboring district.  In my district, our Representative Hillstrom, once a good City Council member with demonstrated fiscal sanity has turned her back on us, Conservatives in particular, to be a spendthrift in St. Paul.  She tied her wagon to Speaker Kelliher's star, now is Assistant Minority Leader in the House. No doubt she will file to move up to Senator with incumbent Linda Scheid's passing.  And there's nothing I can do about it.  Ronald Reagan couldn't get elected here.

So maybe I should be allowed to vote for Kurt Zellers instead, maybe swapping with a Democrat in his District.  Maybe in these technically amazing times the entire notion of geographical representation should be reconsidered.  We could start with a few "at large" seats whereby the equivalent of a district's voter population could renounce their zip code assignment, signing a petition/proxy in support of say, a Phil Krinke.

Campaigns and voting could be done electronically.  It could prove more secure than traditional voting even with voter ID, even with a Mark Richie in charge.  And we'd all have someone who now must listen to us to get re-elected, unlike today in my district.

Comments

[Hiram]

the right to vote doesn't include within it, the right to have your candidate win. And the candidate who wins represents us, whether we voted for him or not.

I find the notion that electronic communications are secure are, let's just say, contrary to my experience. I always assume that everything I type into a computer is absolutely open to the public. And of course, that any computerized form of voting is subject to hacking, and no doubt will be hacked. The computer aspects of Voter ID are what make it most problematic in terms of voter security.

[The Big Stink]

"the right to vote doesn't include within it, the right to have your candidate win."

When you're a Republican, no. When you're DFL, they keep counting until they get it right.