By Mark Wachtler
The voting system known as Top Two is being pushed to replace America’s current voting system. But one need only look at California, which uses Top Two, to see the devastating ramifications. Top Two excludes independents and opposition parties from the General Election. Of hundreds of races in the state Tuesday, only three include a candidate other than a Republican or Democrat. One of those is the Peace & Freedom Party’s Adam Shbeita running for the US House in CA CD 44.
In Top Two voting, all the Primary candidates from all the Parties are put together on one list, sometimes listing dozens of names, and voters from all Parties get to choose from among all the Parties’ nominees. Only the top two vote-getters advance to the General Election. The problem is, the result is always the same – only Democrats and Republicans ever get to move on to the final round.
Back in March, Opposition News shined a light on the California Peace & Freedom Party’s efforts to end Top Two in the state. We revealed how under Top Two, independents and opposition Parties went from having an average of 133 candidates on each General Election ballot to having only 21 in 2012 and a heart-breaking 3 this Election. Another result of Top Two is that thanks to the two Establishment Parties’ gerrymandering, the top two vote-getters are often from the same Party, giving voters no choice in the General Election. Read ‘Peace & Freedom Party fights Top Two voting in CA’ for more information.
One of California’s only three opposition Party candidates on the ballot Tuesday is Adam Shbeita from the Peace & Freedom Party. He ran as a write-in in a race where the incumbent was running unopposed. Readers may remember Adam from the Opposition News article, ‘CA Peace & Freedom gets Candidate into General Election’. The other two opposition candidates include a Libertarian and an American Independent, each running for State Rep in different districts. But Peace & Freedom’s Adam Shbeita is trying to go to Washington. And he’s in a race against controversial Democrat Congresswoman Janice Hahn (D-CA).
Adam Shbeita is a father of two and an information technology consultant who embodies the American dream. The Palestinian-American is a naturalized US citizen who first graduated from Long Beach City College and then from California State University. The Congressional candidate moved to California from Jordan nearly 30 years ago and he says, “I found that I loved California…I love this place and I want to make it better.”
The candidate gives a glimpse of some of his most passionate issues when he explains on his campaign website Adam4USA.com, “I have two children, and I am very concerned about their future and the future of all our children. I want all our children to be able to get a good advanced education without being forced into debt for life. I want them to be able to find rewarding work, to be able to pursue interesting careers, instead of being forced to work at low wages that cannot support a family.”
Read the full article here.