|
Wyoming voters deserve equal say
|
|
|
|
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
|
Russ Goudge
Guest Columnist
I would like to clarify the recent request that I made to the governments of Wyoming on behalf of myself and other leaders in the Wyoming community.
We believe that combining our communities and governments is the right thing to do. We also believe that most of what is going to happen under our proposed plan is in everyone’s best interest, and we believe that our government officials have acted in good faith; that they, for the most part, have done a good job of supporting our 1st amendment rights; “...to petition the Government for redress of grievances.”
We believe that election is the time honored way Americans select their leaders. That our founding fathers started this tradition and made it part of law because they believed as we do, that the power to govern is derived from the consent of the governed as stated in the Declaration of Independence. We believe in Equal Representation as described in Article 1, Sec. 2 of the State Constitution, which states, “no member of this State shall be disfranchised or deprived of any rights or privileges secured to any citizen thereof...”
We want each voter in the new city of Wyoming to have an equal say. The government will be writing many new ordinances, deciding what level of taxation is required to fund a back log of public improvement projects, as well as other public efforts.
The annexation agreement as it is currently worded will set up a process that after the November election, allows that the 2368 registered voters of the current city will have elected 5/5’s of the council; however, the 2579 registered voters of the current township to have only elected 3/5’s. We do not see this as fair or equal.
Webster’s Dictionary describes disfranchised as “to deprive the right to vote.” This fact, in my opinion, triggered the oath of office that a good number of the signers of this request have taken, “to defend and protect the constitution of the United States and the State of Minnesota.”
Regardless if you swore this oath when you were elected to office or when you went into one of the armed services, this is an oath that does not expire with the job, it is for life.
None of us believe that our council or board set out to deny voting rights to anyone, rather tried to find a formula to blend two governments together. Unfortunately the outcome of that formula is that it does deny equal representation to about one half of the voters of the new city of Wyoming; and that appears to be a violation of the State Constitution and possibly the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Some say this is not a good time for this discussion; however, if not now, when? The result of the current agreement, without a change, will be that voters were being deprived of their right to elect their representatives.
Our democracy will not be defeated by a large movement or a single act. The danger to our way of life is that we allow it to vanish piece by piece.
First this part of a right and then another, until at some point it is all out of reach to the average person in our society. The responsibility to defend these American ideals and rights fall on each generation to believe enough in their value to stand up for the constitution.
We sincerely believe that there should be a full election in November, and it is an injustice to move forward with anything less than full and fair elections to preserve equal representation for all the voters of the new city of Wyoming.
The writer lives in Wyoming Township. He was one of 17 former or current government officials in Wyoming or Chisago County who signed a petition requesting the change in election status.
|
