Idiots need representation, too.

Primary causes problems–Wapakoneta council candidates disqualified

I’m always amazed by 1. the number of elected officials in Ohio who don’t seem to grasp that you declare your party affiliation by voting in a primary, and 2. the number of voters in Ohio who think they should be allowed to help select the nominees of a political party to which they do not belong.

Three would-be Wapakoneta City Council candidates won’t see their names on this November’s ballot.

The three candidates–Deborah A. Zwez, current councilor-at-large, and David A. Kimmey and Jerry L. Hight, who were both running for Wapakoneta’s 1st Ward council seat–declared that they were non-partisian candidates in filing their election petitions, which were due May 7. The following day, all three voted in the city’s Republican primary.

The Auglaize County Elections Board voted unanimously to disqualify the candidates from running and therefore did not certify their petitions.

…

“By voting in the primary, they are stating loudly and clearly that they are affiliated with a party,” Auglaize County Prosecutor Ed Pierce told the Auglaize County Election Board during its regular meeting Tuesday afternoon. “This is pretty plain on its face what they did.”

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“I hope the board comes to my defense,” Zwez said. “I don’t think anyone would have cast a vote if they would have known this. It’s an inane requirement that takes away an independent candidate’s right to vote.”

Deb: you ain’t an independent candidate. You voted in the Republican primary. Republican primaries are held so that Republicans can get together and decide who will represent the Republican Party on the November ballot. If independents and Greens and Whigs and Know-Nothings and Free-Soilers get to vote in the Republican primary, what’s to stop me from getting my comrades together to stuff the ballot boxes for Dennis Kucinich in the Democrat primary?

Come to think of it, that’s a fine idea….