348: Vote. (But Do Your Homework First)

A few years ago I had a discussion with an individual who was campaigning for a seat in the Minnesota state senate. Something seemed a little off, so I googled her.

Sharon Anderson, (sometimes Scarrella,) has been running in almost every election since the 1970s for a number of different offices. In 1994 she was kicked off the ballot as a candidate for the Minnesota Supreme court because she did not meet the qualifications for the position. In 1988 her home in St. Paul was foreclosed on after she failed to pay taxes on it.

I’ve never been able to understand her rational, but Sharon sees the loss of her home as some sort of deep seated evidence for government corruption.

One would think that a fringe candidate like Sharon Anderson would never find success, but if you run enough campaigns the odds are that at one time or another you’ll end up on top. In 1994 Sharon entered the Republican Primary for Minnesota Attorney General. She shocked all observers by upsetting a highly qualified lawyer who was serving in the state senate. The Attorney General race seems to be one for which she is well suited. Two years ago she came within forty-thousand votes of winning the race again. In 2010 she received 46% of the vote in the Republican Primary for Attorney General.

Google her name, or check out this biography of her. You will be doing better than the the 94,245 people who thought she was the best choice to serve as Minnesota’s Attorney General two years ago.

After digging into the story and history of Sharon Anderson I came to a decision: I will never vote for a candidate for public office which I have not thoroughly researched.

Two years later I discovered two candidates on the ballot which I found uniquely unqualified to serve. The first was the Republican candidate for Wisconsin State Treasurer. A recent college graduate who had campaigned to abolish the position for which he was running, the candidate had been fired from his position at a major bank as a result of his campaign. I don’t know all of the details in this situation, but something about it didn’t sit right with me.

That candidate was defeated by an individual which I believe to be imminently more qualified for the job. Unfortunately, the second candidate whom I believed to be unqualified for the position for which he was campaigning was elected. As a matter of fact he has held office since the early eighties.

Wisconsin Secretary of State Douglas La Follette has held office since 1983. No one is really sure what he’s done since then, but he does collect a salary of $280,000 a year. None of that immediately disqualifies him for office, but the fact that he has called for all men to be sterilized after they have had two children does. It’s an idea that sounds more more at place in Communist China than Middle America. La Follette has argued that a global one child policy is absolutely necessary for planetary survival, yet the people of Wisconsin vote for him again, and again and again.

How does Sharon Anderson get the Republican nomination for Attorney General in Minnesota? How does Douglas La Follette win countless statewide elections in Wisconsin while advocating for forced sterilization? The only reason I can come up with is that people haven’t really done their research, and vote for a name and/or a party that they recognize.

I went to Wal-Mart today, and there was a sticker on a meat cooler reminding customers to register to vote. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great when people vote. I just wish that people would do a little bit more research before they did.

By all means vote, but please do your homework first.

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