Ballot questions measure public's pulse

Early voting has already begun in Columbia County for next Tuesday's Primary Election. On Sunday, The News-Times will offer an endorsement in the only locally contested race in the primary: The Republican election for County Commission chairman.

Today, we offer our views on the more than two dozen non-binding questions on the primary ballots. Each party, in presenting their ballots for primary elections, can ask "straw poll" questions. The practice has grown in recent years. Next Tuesday's ballot includes 14 questions by the Republicans, 11 from the Democrats.

The tally of the questions carries no authority. Yet aside from a few questions that are entirely outside the realm of local politics, the responses often guide public policy. In fact, the chairmanship to be voted on next week began as a pair of ballot questions that helped create the position.

That position, by the way, appears only on the Republican Primary ballot, and because there is no Democrat opposition, the race next Tuesday will decide the chairmanship for Columbia County. For this reason, we urge all voters to pick up a GOP ballot.

The questions on both ballots, a few notes on each and our suggested vote is below. The answers to some of these questions are just as easily chosen by coin-toss, but to avoid long lines at the ballot, we urge all voters to study them first.