Yesterday was an election day here in Tennessee. The big parties had their primaries and there was also a general election. Tennessee has what some people call “open primaries”, but they really are very closed. So closed that you could not even vote in today’s general election without declaring a political party. Which I find to be a total load of crap!

States like Georgia allow anyone to vote in a primary by selecting a ballot for a party or a non-partisan ballot. This does not require declaring membership to any party. So in Georgia anyone wanting to participate in a party primary can do so, without ever actually declaring membership in that party. This was a good deal for an Independent like myself. That’s what I call an open primary. Here in Tennessee, you must declare membership in a party on election day in order to vote in the primary and general election held the same day. It almost looks like voting in Georgia, but in Tennessee you actually are declaring membership in a party, not simply requesting a party’s primary ballot like in Georgia. And unlike GA, there is no “non-partisan” option in TN if you don’t want either party’s ballot. I have never declared membership in any party, because I don’t like them or the concept of parties and their lock on ballot access. I don’t want a new political party. I don’t like political parties period! That’s how I’ve done it since my first vote at age 18.

So when I went to vote today I was thinking I would be able to simply request a general election ballot without declaring a political party. I was immediately told by a poll worker that I must declare a party. I told them I don’t want to accept membership to a party, I just want to vote in the general election and I was told I would need to declare Democrat or Republican, otherwise I would not be able to vote at all. Left with that choice and given I was all set to vote in the general election, I took the stupid form, checked Republican and told the poll worker I would rather vote as an Independent, but if I must choose for the moment I’ll have to choose that party. After all they are the more Conservative of the choices I was forced to choose if I wanted to vote at all.

So then I get to the computer to vote and there I see the poll worker about to select from 3 choices: Democrat, Republican and General Election. At that point I was thinking why couldn’t these ignoramuses in TN have simply allowed for a “general election” option at the door, because it’s already there on the computer?!!! It just shows how much of a strangle hold the parties have over this state. The poll worker on the computer said he could select “general election” for me if I wanted him to, but I had already been forced to declare a party just to vote and they were not going to allow me to take back that sheet of paper with the party checked and my signature on it. So I had already declared and could not take it back, so I told him to just set it up for the party primary I declared.

I called TN’s election commission after voting and was told there was no way I could have voted yesterday without declaring a political party. It makes no sense that a voter can’t even vote in the general election held on the same day as party primaries unless a political party is declared. I’ll be writing state representatives in hopes of at least being allowed to use a general election ballot in the future without having to declare membership in a party.

So tonight Bob Corker won the Republican nomination for the US Senate. I voted for Ed Bryant, because Corker is not a true pro-Life Conservative. He’s changed his stance with the political winds and there have been some questions about his use of illegal aliens for labor. Even now while Corker claims a pro-Life stance he’s OK with killing babies in the womb if they were conceived during a rape. As if the baby should be killed because of the sins of his father. Bob Corker is not a true Conservative and he might disappoint this state’s Conservatives more than Bill Frist.

But there is someone worse than Bob Corker that will be running for the US Senate in November. That man is soon to be former Memphis congressman Harold Ford Junior. He easily won the Democratic nomination. The bottom line is that if he made it into the US Senate he would be far more Liberal than Corker and Frist could ever dream of being. So come November unless something better comes along I’ll be voting for Corker. Ford must be defeated, just as America had to be protected from a John Kerry Presidency. Ford might not be as Liberal as Kerry, but Ford’s advocacy of states being forced by the Federal government to allow people to murder their babies in the womb is horrible. Also we know Ford would probably join his party in voting against judges that Liberals don’t like. He’d probably be OK with babies being used for medical experiments aka embryonic stem cell research. The Blue Dog Democrats still side with the Liberals when the pressure is on. They like that party campaign support and so they’ll never stray too far from the desires of the Democratic Party bosses. Of course Republican Party bosses are about just as bad as the Democrats.

Jim Bryson won the Republican nomination for Governor and he’s better than the Liberal Democrat who poses as a moderate currently in the position.

Candidates in Tennessee can run as an Independent if they wish to avoid running in a party primary. We voters are not so lucky.