Citizens need to get involved in elections

David Broder provided some welcome news in his June 13 column in the form of a change in how the California voters's ballots will be set up.

California voters recently approved a ballot measure that next year would end the system of party primaries for all offices and substitute a "top two" nominating system in which all candidates would appear on the same ballot. The two most favored for an office, regardless of party, would go on to November.

David said this new system was only tried in Washington state before. I wonder why we did not hear about it when the state of Washington used the system?

If this system was used in Illinois, we could generate respectable primary voter turnout. This past February, here in the Fox Valley, we had close to a 15 percent voter turnout. How embarrassing can this be? When questioned about not voting, many voters said that they did not want to declare and only be able to vote for candidates in one party.

Many of us that are very interested in our political health were not born yesterday - far from it. It is all about control and set in place by greedy political groups to guide us in the direction "they" choose the vote to go. That's right, just like voting districts are set up in favor of the group in power at the time.

Hardly ever are decisions made with your best interests in mind in Springfield. Get involved, very involved, and learn all you can about the candidates before you go to vote and find yourself standing there scratching your head and asking, "Who are all these people?" Not funny McGee, it's serious business. Take control of your future back!

Ron Petrucci

St. Charles