Jack Turner’s recent column equating Georgia’s new Jim Crow voting law to the challenges faced by unaffiliated candidates seeking office in Colorado is unfortunate. The Georgia law is a not-so-thinly-veiled effort to make it harder for citizens of color to vote. It continues more than 400 years of oppression, degradation and denial of civic participation. In contrast, unaffiliated Colorado citizens face no such opposition to casting their votes.

False comparisons aside, debate about how to make both voting and running for office easier should be taking place. The La Plata County Democratic Party knows that a large percentage of La Plata County voters are unaffiliated and so focus our outreach efforts on issues important to everyone such as affordable housing, rural broadband, affordable health care, good jobs and protection of public lands. We’re willing to work with anyone on these issues no matter their affiliation.

There are benefits to party affiliation, of course. Party affiliation can give voters an idea of where a candidate stands on key issues. Anyone who wishes to declare as a Democratic candidate can do so and follow a process that includes getting the support of voters in many precincts (in the case of a county commissioner) or across multiple counties (in the case of a state senator or representative).

The La Plata Democratic Party encourages anyone curious to know our core beliefs and those of the candidates we support to visit our website at www.laplatadems.org.

Herb Bowman, Chairman of La Plata County Democratic PartyDurango