Registering Voters

For John, BLUF:  Words convey meanings and sometimes we use them improperly.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Listening to Candidate Fred Bahou on City Life I am convinced that he is an Independent Candidate for the General Court.  He is Independent in that he is willing to caucus with whoever provides advantage to him and to his District.

Here in Massachusetts there are 4,342,841 registered voters, of whom (as of October 2012) 2,283,273 are "unenrolled".  (1,551,693 Democrats, 484,099 Republicans and 23,776 odds and ends.) The term "unenrolled" seems to refer to enrolled by a political party.♠

Given the three to one ratio of Democrats to Republicans one wonders (1) how Republicans manage to get elected and (2) how many "unenrolled" are really Republicans who wish to disguise their political leanings, perhaps for reasons of commerce.

I suggest that we here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts drop the term "unenrolled" and replace it with the term I remember from my time as a voter in California, "declines to state".  These two million plus are not enrolled because they haven't made a choice, but because they are hiding.  Let's call them what they are, people who "decline to state".

Action to our Legislators.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Since the Commonwealth "enrolls" Citizens in political parties, does that mean that they can not be rejected or dismissed by the political party?  Further, does that involvement of State Government justify the State Government paying for Primaries?