Back in July they held an election in LeFlore County. The wife and I went down to vote for our favorite candidate. She is a registered Democrat and I am a registered independent. I was refused the ability to vote. The excuse given was I was an independent and there were only Democrats running. Well, no one got the required percentage of the vote so they had to run another election between the two top vote getters.
I wonder how many others were disenfranchised that day because they were not Democrats. Perhaps there were enough turned away that another election would not have been needed. I was told that it was a primary election, but if there were a runoff I would then be allowed to vote. No election where, if a person gets enough votes they win, is a primary. Or are we back to "depends on your definition of IS is?"
I was also told that if I want to vote in most of Oklahoma elections I would have to change my registration to Democrat by the lady that was running the voting poll! O.K. It made me mad and I yelled a lot, but let it go pretty much at that.
Today they held the runoff election and again the wife and I went to the polls to vote for our favorite. Again I was refused the ability to vote because I am still registered as independent, using the same old excuse that it is a primary and only Democrats are running.
How can this be a primary election. There are two men running, the top vote getters from the first election and who ever gets the most votes will be the new sheriff. This is a general election, not a dang primary, but once again I was disenfranchised and not allowed to vote. How many others are being disenfranchised by the Democratic Party in Oklahoma?
Is it any wonder that voters stay away from the polls by the thousands when this type of thing is allowed to be? No wonder 20 to 28 percent turn out is normal, why bother? This time I will not let it go. I am starting a letter writing binge to newspapers, local and state, and will be writing letters to all Oklahoma so-called leaders. I wonder how many will even bother to read them, much less bother to reply or do anything about it. I urge all voters to do the same.
JAMES MCGEE, POCOLA
