Time for local political housekeeping …

Dear Editor:
As I look back on the just past political season (election), I find one area that it would seem all factions of the process might work together to CHANGE. I believe that many of our public offices should be lifted from partisanship.

Our coroner surely does not do his work under the Democrat/Republican/Independent heading yet he was carried under the Democrat label this past election. We normally look for the ability to do the work and the candidate’s party affiliation is immaterial. Likewise with our Auditor, Sheriff, Assessor and other similar skilled offices.

If you were a Republican during the past election and wanted to vote for these type offices, you had to change your party affiliation during the primaries, vote for your choice in the primary and then change back during the General Election. Not a fun process and certainly a “bubble” for election official’s records. I’m sure some did not participate in the total selection process because of this. A change might stimulate the voting process throughout South Carolina.

This problem seems to me a bipartisan one and something we all can come together on and CHANGE. Let’s contact our local representatives, Cathy Harvin, John Land and our election officials, and get them working on the problem and serve us by making the election fit into our Clarendon County landscape.

I might be in the dark about some aspect of the current process that serves one or the other political parties but I sure do not see it.

Sincerely,
Jack Justice
Summerton, S.C.