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PAGE 6A
F0rsyth0p i l 1 i on
Sunday, June 3,2012
Election laws
an odd mix
for qualifying
Last week's mini
brouhaha over birth
cert i ficates, sheri If's
candidates anil the pri¬
mary ballot served as a
reminder that the pro¬
cess of qualifying to
run for local office in
Georgia is one with
some unusual quirks
Because the primaries
are actually part of the
nominating process for
political parties. local
qualifying for primary
elections is handled by
the parties at the county
level.
Civic lesson time.
If you want to run for
sheriff of Forsyth
County in a primary
election, you do so by
qualifying with the
Republican or
Democratic parties. If
you plan to be a non¬
partisan candidate you
can follow a different
process to appear on
the general election
ballot as an indepen¬
dent w ithout going
through the necessity of
winning a primary
nomination
That said. local party
officials have to follow
state guidelines in
allow ing candidates to
qualify, and if there are
questions as to whether
that is done, the local
election board, com¬
prised of representa¬
tives of both parties,
has to decide whether a
candidate should be on
the ballot.
And of course if the
decisions of the elec¬
tion board are deemed
suspect they can be
challenged through the
courts.
It is a process that has
potential for problems,
and every now and then
one crops up some¬
where in Georgia.
Because the primaries
frequently are the only
elections that count in
LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR
When rt comes to jobs,
government is the problem
Jobs and the recession. It is easy to
blame this recession on the Wall Street
Banks because of the handling of mort¬
gages. While they had a hand in it.
decline in our earning and spending
power started decades ago and it all
came together a few years ago.
Government contributed by it's never
taking the foreign commerce clause
seriously and recklessly allowing unfair
foreign competition to take over entire
industries.
The Labor Department was like a
spectator at a ball game Cheering first
one side then the other in labor prob¬
lems We like to refer to Obama regula¬
tions, Bush regulations, and so on
Actually. Congress took their toxic reg¬
ulations out of the president's hands
when the most significant agencies were
established 40 years ago. Namely the
EPA. CPSC. OSHA, FDA and the
Education Department, all of which
does a little bit of good here and there
but can absolutely wipe out any wealth
producing enterprise.
It is our birthright to provide food,
shelter and clothing for ourselves and
our families. Our efforts to re-establish
private sector jobs are feeble at best.
Georgia could use a thousand new fac¬
tories but we do not have expertise to
set up and run them and even if some¬
one was bold enough to create a new
product, at least one of the federal agen¬
cies stands ready to shut you down
What chance do Obama and Romney
S<rn<l a letter to the editor to P.O. Box 210 Camming, GA 30028; fax It to (770) 889-6017; or e-mail it to editor^forsythnews.com.
many parts of the state,
the power entrusted to a
handful of local party
representatives in each
county is enormous, so
it’s no surprise that
every election cycle has
its challenges.
More often than not,
those party representa¬
tives are volunteers or
party officers w ho have
little know ledge or
experience in qualify¬
ing candidates for elec¬
tion
In the local case, state
law requires candidates
seeking the office of
sheriff to produce a cer¬
tified birth certificate
and a high school
diploma. None of the
three candidates seek¬
ing the office did so by
the qualifying deadline,
but. when prompted, all
did before the names of
candidates were for¬
mally presented to and
accepted by the coun¬
ty’s election board.
No harm, no foul.
When questions arose
about the missing docu¬
mentation at the end of
qualifying, state offi¬
cials were quick to
point out that decisions
on whether candidates
met qualifying guide¬
lines were to be decid¬
ed by local party offi¬
cials, and then the local
election board, not the
state, w hich is where
you might expect such
a decision to be made
But the issue docs
raise some interesting
questions, not the least
of which is why a birth
certificate is considered
essential for a candidate
running for sheriff, but
not necessary for candi¬
dates for other offices
Is someone in the coun¬
try illegally more likely
to run for sheriff than a
seat on the county
school board or com¬
mission'’
have? Little to none. Even Ronald
Reagan's "Trickle Down" economics
was a total bust
It is graduation season in our high
schools. Consider if you will what the
graduating students are equipped to do
Going to a college which is probably 40
years behind the times, just makes M
worse
What to do? We must get tough with
our government Building bigger ports
to handle more imported consumer
goods is a very poor answer A very few
people getting richer and millions get
ting poorer is not encouraging. I suspect
that everyone has a good idea If wc
keep good ideas to ourselves, they do
little good.
Mitchell L. Easier
Cummtng
Kudos to state DOT
for extra lane on 400
I make the trip down 400. exits 13 to
5, six days a week When I heard about
the extra lane, 1 thought, "this is crazy
and it won't work."
But I'm here to say I was wrong, and
now I would like to see DOT look at the
possibility of the same from exits 12 to
14 in the evening hours of 4:30 to 6:30.
The experience has showed me that
with a little thought and around
$ 100,000 much less that anyone
would have thought to fix a problem on
400 — it can be il< >tu Nit e job < il >< > I
Sharon Machak
Cummtng
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Better protect your wallets
from this version of ‘free
On Tuesday, House
Minority Leader Nancy
Pclosi explained to the
Commonwealth Club the
reason Washington
passed Obamacarc. Even
if every one in America
"loved” his own health
care plan. Pclosi argued.
Congress had to pass
President Barack
Obama's Affordable Care
Act because American
health care was "unsus¬
tainable financially "
Yes. Pelosi ac tually
believes Washington had
to get involved in health
care to reduce its cost
The Democratic leader
then listed some of
Obamacarc s new bene¬
fits: “free" annual check¬
ups and preventive care
and the ability of adult
children to stay on their
parents' policies until
age 26.
Josh Archambault.
director of health care
policy for the Boston
based Pioneer Institute,
expressed the frustration
felt by health policy
wonks who know the
new benefits "arc not
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Letter policy
The Forsyth County News wel¬
comes your opinions on issues of
public concern.
Letters must be signed and
include address and a phone
number for verification.
Names and hometowns of let¬
ter writers will be included for
publication without exception.
Telephone numbers will not be
published.
Letters should be limited to 350
words and may be edited or con
densed.The same writer or group
E i
DEBRA SAUNDERS
Columnist
free " The cost of phy si¬
cals and services doesn't
go aw ay
"It’s OK to decide that
we should offer some¬
thing as a preventive ser¬
vice. but we must under¬
stand the trade-off of
cost." Archambault
noted "Wc all pay more
as a result.”
Obama also has made
the dubious claim that
preventive care "saves
money for families, for
businesses, for govern¬
ment. for everybody."
Problem: It's not true.
Congressional Budget
Office Director Doug
Elmcndorf w arned in
2009. “Although differ¬
ent types of preventive
care have different
effects on spending, the
ev idence suggests that
for most preventive ser-
This is a page of opinion — ours, yours and
others. Signed columns and cartoons are the
opinions of the writers and artists, and they
may not reflect our views.
vices, expanded utiliza¬
tion leads to higher, not
lower, medical spending
overall ” Elmcndorf cued
a 2008 New England
Journal of Medicine arti¬
cle that reported that less
than 20 percent of pre¬
ventive services save
money, w hereas the rest
drive up costs.
Pclosi also told the
Commonwealth Club
that the Affordable Care
Act would mean as much
for Americans' economic
security as Social
Security, Medicare and
Medicaid.
Her analogy brought to
mind PolitiFact's award of
its 2010 “Lie of the Year"
to the Republican asser¬
tion that Obamacarc repre¬
sented "a government
takeover of health care.”
PolitiFact based its
conclusion on the
grounds that, under
Obamacarc. most con¬
sumers continue to
receive their health care
through private carriers
and that the new health
care law “relies largely
on the free market." Yet
may only submit one letter per
month for consideration.
Letters must be submitted by
noonThursday for Sunday publi¬
cation. We do not publish poetry
or blanket letters and generally do
not publish letters concerning
consumer complaints. Unsigned
or incorrectly identified letters will
be withheld.
Mail letters to the Forsyth
County News, PO Box 210,
Cumming, GA 30028, hand deliv¬
er to 302 Veterans Memorial Blvd.,
fax to (770) 889-6017 or e-mail to
editor® forsythnews.com.
here was Pelosi putting
Obamacare on the pedes¬
tal she reserves for
Washington's three giant
government programs.
There is a difference.
The federal government
taxes people and pays for
those programs.
Obamacare. on the other
hand, mandates benefits
and then passes the costs
on to employers.
“Government is not oper¬
ating the mechanisms in
the market,” Archambault
noted, “but they are set¬
ting the rules of the
game."
Be afraid. Under
Obamacare, Congress
can take credit for pro¬
viding consumers with
more health care while
forcing employers to pay
for it. Pelosi. the once
and would-be-future
speaker, actually believes
those benefits are free
and will cut costs.
Debra J Saunders is a
nationally syndicated col¬
umnist. You may e-maii her:
dsaunders@sfchronicle.
com.