Don't Allow the Stolen Election to Stand!

Voters in Montgomery, Cheatham, and Houston counties will have an important decision to make today. It's true the presidential election itself is important, but I would argue the one between State Senator Rosalind Kurita and Tim Barnes is important for another reason.

It comes down to what's right and what's wrong.

• Is it right for a political party, after deciding to allow the voters to select their nominee, to change the result simply because they don't like who was elected?
• Is it right that taxpayers should fund an election that a political party has the power to overturn?

I argue that it is wrong what the Tennessee Democrat Party did to Senator Kurita and the voters of Montgomery, Cheatham, and Houston counties should not tolerate it. If they do it once and get away with it, what is to stop them--or any political party--from doing it again?

The party will argue that they had the right to overturn the primary election citing hearsay voting irregularities that allegedly occurred at polling places. And according to state law, they do have the authority to do it. But it doesn't make it right what they did. The law should be amended that if parties take such action in future primaries, the party should refund the costs of the election to the affected counties. Otherwise why have a taxpayer-funded election in the first place? Nominate candidates in a smoke-filled room they way they used to if the party is unwilling to abide by the will of the voters.

Through moral and ethical eyes, the Tennessee Democrat Party did indeed steal the election that had been won by Senator Kurita, which makes Tim Barnes a very willing accomplice by accepting the nomination in this fashion. "I reject the word 'stolen,'" he recently remarked. But it is what it is, and voters should not stand for the injustice.

Democrats and Republicans should agree that it wasn't right in a democratic election. Please take the extra time to write in KURITA on your ballot.