To the editor,

A Gallup poll conducted in 2022 indicated that more Americans identify as independents than as Republican or Democrat. I think most of us consider ourselves to be freethinking, able to weigh the advantages of one candidate over another, regardless of that candidate’s party. 

And yet our voting system here in Wisconsin requires that we identify with one party or another when we vote in the primary. This gives enormous power to the parties, who can threaten to run someone further to the left or right than the incumbent unless he or she agrees to do as the party requires.

George Washington saw it coming and noted in his 1796 farewell address that parties “are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitions, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people…”

Final Five Voting takes power away from the parties and returns it to the representative and to the voter. Because the top five vote-getters advance from the primary to the general election, the incumbent cannot be primaried and thus can act on his or her conscience. Voters in the general election can mark their ballots to indicate who they think will do the best job, then who might do almost as well, and on down the line. 

Final Five Voting has had both Senate and Assembly hearings in Madison. Now it’s time to let our representatives know that we value our relationships with them more than we do our relationships with their parties. Make the call—George Washington would!

Maureen Ash

Town of River Falls