The election season is here. There are many things for voters to consider. I am now writing about Amendment H, which will allow all voters to vote.

There are currently 153,000 of us non-affiliated and independent voters inSouth Dakota who get shut out of the democratic process during the primaries.

I am 76 years old. As a youth I first registered as a Minnesota Republican.

After college and time as an infantry officer I moved to South Dakota and became a Democrat, because of their willingness to discuss Vietnam and bring our involvement to an end. I never became a lever puller (one who votes a straight ticket), not even as a county chair. I was more interested in the person than the party they belonged to.

In my 50-plus years in South Dakota, I have known many people who were more interested in what’s best for the people in the state than they were in party politics.

When I ran for public office, I switched my registration to independent. I believed that party politics has no place in running a county government.

The last three primaries, I have gone to the finance/auditor’s office and changed my registration to Republican so I could vote for the best candidate for the position that was being voted on. After the primary I change back to Independent, which costs money in labor and mailing for the county.

In South Dakota there are some districts where the winner is decided in the primary due to the lack of opponents in the general election. As a result some registered voters don’t get a chance to vote for their leaders. That’s democracy? Amendment H will change that by allowing all registered voters to vote in primaries. Thank you for your consideration this November and vote “yes” for Amendment H. Let All voters vote.