Did you know that less that 10,000 people in Utah decide the political fate of the entire state?  They, and they alone, will decide who will be the next Senator, House Representative, County Commissioner, and Sheriff, just to name a few.  Every law that is written, every ordinance that is passed, every political idea, needs to have the majority approval of less than .004 percent of all Utahns. This vast minority of people are known as delegates and their thoughts, feelings, and ideas have far more weight on the states future than the average man on the street ever will.

“But wait,” you may say “I vote, I pay my taxes, I even write my local newspaper.” Well friend, this has an indirect effect on policy at best. In most cases, the election is decided long before the first person walks into the polling booth.

The reason for this is that, as it stands right now, elections are a formality. In2008, four state wide races were considered “close,” where the victor received less than 52 percent of the vote; three were in the State House, and one was for School Board. Consider the fact that there were no less than 104 races taking place that year and you begin to see that something might be wrong.

For me, however, elections are far from a ceremony where we all just go through the motions. I (along with MRF) am a delegate and have chosen representatives who have gone on and made laws. The system works great for me and those around me in similar situations. We join with our fellow delegates to choose candidates within our party – in my case, there are certain races were a Democrat will always win and the real election happens at a convention. The candidate that woos the most delegates will win and they simply wait until November for the rest of the voters to catch up.

Feel discouraged? You should – this system is specifically designed to give power to a relatively small number of people to ensure that “the best candidates are chosen” with the idea that delegates are more politically aware and are, therefore, better able to choose candidates who match the needs of both their party and their district. This system is structured on the idea that knowledge of affairs is difficult to find and concentrated among a few elites who know whats best.

As little as 10 years ago, I would argue that this is a good system to have in place because information was difficult to get a hold of. Sure, the information was out there in scholarly papers and council meeting minutes, but the nuances of a debate or bill could only be deciphered by someone who was there. Today, I can find articles that are decades old and, if I so desired, trace an issue back to its birth with only a little bit of time on Google.

Information has become easily accessible, and voters are becoming smarter. It should almost go without saying, but voters represent the aggregate opinions and feelings of the people and as overall knowledge on an issue increases, so to does debate and (hopefully) good policy. Sure, individuals have their pet issues, but the aggregate is capable of doing what the aggregate wants.

On the flip side, delegates have become stupider – or, at the very least, less willing to see the bigger picture.

The very same technology that has made information easier to access has also made information easier to tailor. Delegates are people too and, therefore, have their own particular pet issues that they care about – be it the environment, education, lower taxes, or smaller government.

Twenty years ago, you had to go out and seek information that was either academic and, therefore, peer reviewed or received it from a handful of albeit biased sources such as newspapers or television. None the less, it was easier to get varied, accurate, information on a topic. Today, however, it is easy to get sucked into one mode of thought and completely ignore other information. I will wager that many of you readers out there watch MSNBC but not FOX, read the Huffington Post but not the Drudge Report, listen to public radio and not Rush – why? Because I am willing to bet that most of you are liberal and do not actively seek sources that dose not match up with your world view. I too am just as guilty of doing this because it is comfortable. The result is that people get it into their heads that there is only one way of doing things and that any other opinion is uncomfortable and, therefore, false.

Now, what happens when we expand this to the delegate level? No longer do we have a political elite that is learned on what is “best,” they are only learned on what is best for them and the issues they care about. The result? We have fewer statesmen and more radical candidates who originate from this mode of thought – candidates who say “sure the schools are failing, but who cares? The government is coming for my guns,” and delegates who say “he may have to represent an entire district, but he has not done enough on my issue.”

This point has been proven during the recent Democratic and Republican conventions. The Republican delegates booted Senator Bob Bennett despite him having a 54 percent approval rating; likewise, Democratic delegates forced Representative Jim Matheson into a primary – unflinching in the fact that he has a 64 percent approval rating in his district (source).

Another symptom of this system is that the average person is encouraged not to participate.  There are a slew of reasons why voter apathy is up, but the ultimate reason is that they average voters don’t see how their vote counts – they simply feel that they are choosing the lesser of two evils, not the candidate who represents them.  The delegate system, in its current state, only serves to increase this feeling as candidates are ultimately either too far left or too far right.

Sadly, the only way that the system will change is if the delegates decide to change it.  All the complaining in the world won’t do a whole heap of good if the party elites don’t want to change it; activism alone won’t change it, we must work within the system to change it for the better.

And we must change it, for I fear that things will only continue to slide.