The decision of Maine Democrats to launch a ballot initiative to restore same-day voter registration shows why the Party has lost its relevance. While Maine residents endure unemployment, under-employment, a collapsing housing market, reductions to education spending etc., Democrats are consumed with restoring the right to register and vote on the same day.
Speaking from my own experience, as a lifelong registered Democrat and as someone who has moved from state to state at least a half dozen times, and from towns within states many more times than that, I can’t understand why it’s so hard to register to vote 2 days ahead of an election. It isn’t as though registration is required every election or even every year. Once you have registered to vote, until you move, you don’t have to go through the process again.
I started to wonder what was going on with the Maine Democratic Party when it was discovered that two Super Delegates to the 2008 National Democratic Convention were no longer residents of the State: former Governor Kenneth Curtis and former Senator George Mitchell. Didn’t anyone at the State Party know that Curtis moved to Florida - probably to avoid Maine income tax - and that Mitchell was living elsewhere?
Another alarm went off when the State Party chose to engage in a reputation-slurring, racist campaign against gubernatorial candidate Eliot Cutler in the fall of 2010. Does anyone remember the mass-mailed fortune cookie flyers? Cutler’s time in China was portrayed as anti-union and his sin was to perform work for a company that conducted business in China.
An email to the Maine Democratic Party headquarters in an attempt to find out who was responsible for the offensive mailing produced no answers. Someone did send me a lengthy diatribe about Cutler’s character in case the fortune-cookie flyer was too subtle. Rather than an explanation taking responsibility for the flyer, I got a lecture. This is understandable as the Party seems incapable of anything but preaching to the converted.
There were also numerous Kamikaze-like emails and phone calls during the final weeks before the election directing union members - state employees and teachers mostly - to vote for Libby Mitchell rather than Cutler even as Mitchell was tanking in the polls while Cutler began to surge. The Democrats deserve much credit for handing the election to Paul LePage. Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
My final beef has to do with Maine being a caucus state. This may not be the Party’s fault but while I’m at it, I’m going to lay the blame on them.
The caucus system is a charade of a true election. It’s something I experienced while living in Iowa and it’s a combination of much ado about nothing and a joke. If you can’t be there, you don’t get to vote. Attempts have been made to eliminate the caucus in favor of the more democratic secret ballot system which would permit absentee voting but there’s no reason to change things when a few in leadership control the process.
The last Maine State Democratic caucus, at which Barack Obama was named the victor, was disorganized and lasted well beyond its scheduled length, forcing some attendees to leave before actually casting their votes. That’s democracy in action! Whoever was in charge should be ashamed.
In Maine today there are many voters who are not registered as Republicans or Democrats. People are abandoning party affiliation and identifying themselves as Independents or members of the Green Party. Since these folks don’t vote in primaries (unless they temporarily register as Republican or Democrat prior to the primary) both parties end up nominating people to run on their ticket who come from an extreme position.
Which brings me to the last peeve about Maine Democrats: too many folks come to the party at primary time. There’s no better way to surprise voters than to run 6 to 8 candidates in a primary. Understandably, no one controls such things and it is anyone’s right to run. But isn’t there a way to ask some to check their egos and hold back for another time rather than encourage a baseball team’s worth of candidates?
It’s great to rant about these things but the sad truth is nothing will change. The only option left is to move on to another party or become one of the “unenrolled”. That title has a desperate quality to it. Sounds like my kind of group to affiliate with.
