Don Roach: Is The Master Lever So Bad?
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Recently, House Speaker Gordon Fox spoke about how he has no problem with the Master Lever. In an interview with RIFuture, he stated that you need to respect someone if they go into the voting booth and pull the master lever. Essentially, they know what they are doing and if they want to vote all Democrat, all Republican, or what have you who is Fox to judge them and insist that they make a selection in every political race.
Never mind that in Cranston, the school committee is a non-partisan position (stop laughing!) and if you don’t vote for a particular person, well you’re not voting. The master lever dates back to 1939 when a the-irony-is-chilling Republican General Assembly required the option when most elections were made up of two parties. Also, the voting machines were a bit bulkier back then, but in 2013 it’s pretty easy to vote for all of the top ticket candidates and city referenda in about five minutes.
Ken Block’s opinion of the Master Lever
I asked former gubernatorial candidate Ken Block to explain why he’s been leading the charge on this and below are his responses.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTDon Roach: Why is this issue so important to you?
Ken Block: I knew going into this legislative session that we would end up where we are right now: with the Master Lever bills being held for further study and the bills' fates resting in the hands of the Senate President and Speaker of the House. In previous sessions, the Master Lever bills were quietly killed in the legislative purgatory of 'held for further study'.
The elimination of the Master Lever is important all by itself because of the documented harm that the Lever inflicts on voters and candidates. But for me, it was also vitally important to see how legislative leadership handles the issue with a much larger and active advocacy push. RI has a VERY opaque legislative process - and far too many issues move through the legislature for political purposes, as opposed to for the better good of the greatest number of citizens.
There was unanimous testimony in favor of removing the Lever - not a single soul testified to keep the lever. There are numerous academic studies documenting the Lever's harm. It is only for political purposes (I assume) that leadership wants to keep the Lever - so can they justify inflicting a quiet death on these bills - and will the RI voter tolerate that act?
So Block believes that Fox and Senate leaders are blocking this bill for ‘political purposes’. Obviously, in non-partisan races it doesn’t help anyone, but how does it help in a partisan race? Presumably if I am a Democrat and I go to the polls in November and I vote straight Democrat because I want to, wouldn’t I have voted for all Democrats anyway, spending about an extra 3 minutes to fill in the little space? I suppose there is an off chance I might see a Republican, 3rd party, or independent candidate that I might vote for, but I might not either.
Block weighed in on why he thinks General Assembly leadership – notably Speaker Fox – is blocking this legislation.
Ken Block: I know that Speaker Fox hesitates to support the removal of the Master Lever because he has stated that he sees no problem with the Lever - even after all of the hard evidence presented against the Lever during Judiciary Committee hearings. The Speaker has not provided a good reason for the Lever to be retained - as opposed to the academic studies and evidence that was uncovered in the Burrillville ballots that we analyzed from the 2010 election.
I have had legislators tell me directly that they do not support the removal of the Lever because it helps them win their races. I don't know if this is part of the Speaker's calculus, but if it is then that is the absolutely worst reason to keep the Lever.
The most shocking statement Block makes is saying that there are legislators who have confessed to him that they believe the Master Lever has helped them win races. Question is, if the Master Lever has helped them win races, is that an unfair advantage to them?
Should we eliminate the Master Lever?
Obviously, Block believes it is something we should do away with, but what do you think? Is the Master Lever a tool that can unfairly sway elections or would people 100 percent of the time choose the party candidate they would have if they had pulled the lever?
To me, the issue of fairness seems to fall a bit flat because if people are going to vote Democrat or Republican forcing them to do so in each race won’t change their decision with or without the Master Lever. Yes, there’s a much greater possibility that one could not vote straight ticket but think of the make-up of this class of voters. They are taking a proactive step to say, just one party thank you very much. I doubt these voters will change their voting habits just because the Master Lever is gone. If any of you do, persuade me.
No, I think the only solid argument against the Master Lever is in non-partisan races. In those races when you select only a political party, you don’t vote in a non-partisan race. This is ludicrous when local races feature people in positions that impact our daily lives much more than say a Congressman or even an Attorney General for that matter. I seriously doubt, Master Lever voters, if given the choice would favor not voting in non-partisan elections. Instead, I think the education around the Master Lever is lacking and unless we’re going to get rid of non-partisan races, we need to seriously consider removing the Master Lever.
Fox well understands these non-partisan elections and I won’t argue his point about people making a proactive choice to support their party. But, when their votes on other down ticket races aren’t counted, the justification for the master lever falls flat.
Fox and others need to join with Block to eliminate this antiquated tool.
Don Roach is a member of the Rhode Island Republicans. Don can be reached at [email protected].
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