Get out and vote on May 17

The primary election is May 17. Last I looked only about 50% of the age eligible Idahoans are registered to vote. Of those registered voters less than 50% vote in the primaries. That means that our representatives are selected by less than 25% of the population.

That is NOT representative government when 75% of the population doesn’t vote. The arguments: "My vote won’t matter;" "I’d lose time from work;" "No transportation." Yada yada yada. They are all nonsense.

All those that don’t vote are simply being spectators when they should be participants. The reason that we have the situation we do is that not enough Idahoans are making their voices heard.

Having vented, here are my recommendations for the upcoming primary. With the GOP primary being limited to those registered as Republicans, I’ve separated the candidates by party. Governor, Brad Little; Lieutenant Governor, Scott Bedke; U.S. Senate, Mike Crapo; Attorney General, Lawrence Wasden; Secretary of State, Phil McGrane; Superintendent of Public Instruction, Debbie Critchfield; Judge, Rich Christensen; District 1 Senator, Jim Woodward; Representative 1A, Mark Sauter; Representative 1B, Sage Dixon; Bonner County candidates are Commissioner District 2 – Jeffrey Connolly; Commissioner District 3, Luke Omodt; Treasurer, Clorrisa Koster; Assessor, Jessi Webster. In Boundary County, we have Commissioner District 2, Tim Bertling, Commissioner District 3, Dan Dinning; and Coroner, Chad Workman.

On the Democrat side there’s only one name comes up – Steve Johnson for Representative 1A. I find it very depressing that only Steve came forward when the GOP has several contested races.

Be that as it may, vote.

GIL BEYER

Sandpoint