Now that the Wallowa County primary election is over, this is a good time to take a fresh look at the longstanding role of party affiliation in the election of our county commissioners.

This coming November, the ballot should include a proposal to make all commissioner positions nonpartisan. If passed, beginning in 2016, all candidates would appear on the same primary ballot and voters would be free to vote for any candidate. The two candidates receiving the most votes for each seat in the primary would then face each other in the general election.

If we decide to make this change, we will be joining the other rural counties in eastern and central Oregon that have recently taken this step. In the last year alone, Lake, Klamath, Crook and Union counties have all voted to make their county commissioners nonpartisan. In each case, these measures passed with at least 67 percent majorities, even though Republicans held a plurality in each of those counties.

There is a clear movement in Oregon toward nonpartisan commissioner positions. Nine years ago, only four counties had nonpartisan commissioners. Today, 23 counties have nonpartisan commissioners. The change to nonpartisan commissioners also matches the status of all other Oregon county officers, none of whom occupy partisan positions.

Why have voters approved this change in every county where it has appeared on the ballot?

The key reason most voters give is that our democracy is at risk when a general election is effectively decided in the primary election by a minority of the voters. These voters acknowledge that the interests of their own political party are simply not a sufficient reason to deny the rest of the electorate an equal voice in the final outcome.

A group of Wallowa County voters, representing Republicans, Democrats, and Independents, is asking the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners to follow the recent example of the commissioners in Crook County by placing this issue on the ballot this November for all the voters to decide.

Earlier this year, the commissioners in Union Country declined to put a similar measure on the ballot. A group of citizens then conducted a petition drive that, in just six weeks, collected twice the number of votes required to place the measure on the ballot. That measure was approved by 68 percent of the voters in the last primary election.

The Board of Commissioners will consider our request at a public meeting on Monday, June 16, at 9:15 a.m. at the Courthouse. We urge every Wallowa County citizen to attend that meeting and also to let our commissioners know, by emailing or telephoning their executive assistant, Sandy Lathrop (s.lathrop@co.wallowa.or.us or 541-426-4543 x 160), that the time has come for us to join other Oregon counties in adopting nonpartisan elections for our county commissioners.

Stephen Adams, a resident of Alder Slope, is one of three chief petitioners for a ballot initiative that would make positions on the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners nonpartisan.