If a state election, funded by our tax dollars, bars so many Arizonans from participating, how can it be seen as fair or a reflection of the will of our state’s voters? The sad fact is it can’t.

A few weeks before the 2022 midterm elections, a pair of election observers from Europe paid a visit to La Paz County. They met with Elections Director Bob Bartlesmeyer and Recorder Richard Garcia. They were eager to hear about the election process in our state and county.

They said the biggest thing that surprised them was how the parties’ candidate selection process was paid for by the taxpayers. This includes not just Presidential Preference Elections, but partisan primaries as well. They said that, in Europe, the candidate selection process is paid for by the parties’ themselves.

This is something all Arizonans should think about, especially when so many Arizona voters are barred from participating in the Presidential Preference Election.

I think this all shows the duopoly that the Republicans and Democrats have over the candidate selection process in all elections except those local elections that are non-partisan.

There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution about political parties. In fact, the founders appear to have not liked the idea of parties. Yet, we have this partisan duopoly mostly due to state law, tradition and custom.

When you have so many people who are disgusted with both parties, as we do now, you have only the most partisan people who remain in those parties. That’s how President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump became the front-runners in the race for President. They reflect their parties, not the desires and needs of the American people.

I’m not the only one who’s saying this:  in a nation of 330 million people, these two can’t possibly be the best candidates we can find for the highest elected office in the land.

I’m thinking we need an entirely new system, one that relies on the people rather than the parties for selecting candidates. One suggestion I’ve heard is holding an open primary with candidates from all parties on the ballot. The top two candidates face each other in a general election.

That’s one possibility. I’m sure there are others out there.

If I may be permitted to be silly for a moment, I suggest we do away with the election for President. Everyone who gets enough signatures on a petition will be taken to a large field in Kansas, Texas or Iowa. They will each be given a big pile of manure to sling at each other. Whoever can stand the smell the longest wins.

I know most people would say this idea stinks.

Seriously, it looks like we’re stuck with the partisan system we have. That’s because the very people who could change it and make it more reflective of the will of the American people are the same people who benefit the most from keeping the system as it is.

That appears to be a problem with a whole host of issues. The people who could most effectively make change are the same people who benefit from keeping things as they are.

I don’t know who said it, but it certainly applies here:  “The more things change, the more they remain the same.”