Primary election strips voters of their rights

This letter to the editor appeared in the Olympian on September 12, 2006.

The right to vote is the heart of our Constitution. How can we be denied the right to choose those who govern us?

The Preamble states in part, "We the people of the United States in order to form a more perfect union ..."

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address ends with "... and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

The Constitution of the United States, Article 1, Section 2, House of Representatives, how and by whom chosen, etc., states implicitly, "The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states."

The people are the citizens, not some political party.

To say that the people cannot vote for the candidates of their choice in the primary election is a clear violation of the Constitution. The primary election is, by definition, part of the election process.

Many political parties have come and gone; The Anti-Masonic, Free Soil, Socialist, Liberty, Greenback, Peoples, Progressive, Union, Reform, Prohibition and the American - also called The Know Nothing Party.

Since I cannot vote for my candidates in the primary election, I will not vote.

I will vote in the general election.

Cameron Carlson, Lacey