In 68 days, Kentucky voters will go to the polls to vote in the 2019 primary elections. At least some voters will.

The sad fact is, by tradition, fewer than 40 percent will vote that day, a sad commentary on a constitutional privilege which produces far fewer participants than most other countries which have the same privilege.

Sadder still is the fact approximately 290,000 registered voters in Kentucky will not vote that day, not because they are disinterested or lazy, but because they are disenfranchised by the state constitution, which stipulates only registered members of either the Democrat or Republican party can vote in this state’s primary elections.

Those 290,000 non-voters will represent almost 9 percent of just more than 3.3 million registered voters here, not an insubstantial number, especially considering how many of those Democrats and Republicans will voluntarily stay away from the voting booths.

Here are a couple of examples of how disinterested the powers in this state are in providing voting opportunities to those who cannot now vote.

If one goes to the county clerk’s office in any county he or she will find there are limited choices for selecting a party with which to register.  Those choices are: Democrat, Republican and “other.”

This probably works alright if there is no other highly-organized party in the state, such as Green or Progressive or Whig.  But since that other includes nearly 9 percent of all registered voters, it seems significant enough to warrant a mention on the voter registration card.

Secondly, Secretary of State Alison Grimes was contacted in 2017 and asked to use her office to promote the idea of open primaries here.  Her lame response was she could not violate her oath of office, despite the fact she was not being asked to violate her oath.

To be fair to Grimes, it is unlikely any future Secretary of State will be more active in allowing independent voting here.

Unless one or the other major parties sees a potential distinct advantage in promoting independent voting, there is unlikely to be much movement to allow it in Kentucky’s primaries.

Advocacy does not entail a violation of an oath of office, it just signifies the unfairness of excluding so many people from the polls, based simply on the fact they are not affiliated with one of two political parties, is patently wrong.

The Georgetown News-Graphic reported in February 2018 that from Jan. 20, 2017, to Dec. 18, 2017, independent voter registration increased in 116 of 120 Kentucky counties, an increase of 3.2 percent, compared to a 2.2 percent increase in Republican registrations and a 0.4 percent decline in Democrat registrations.

Who pays for the primary elections?  Just Democrats and Republicans?  Of course not!

The primary elections are paid for by every taxpaying Kentuckian, even those who choose to remain unaffiliated with either of those parties.

The old catchphrase of “taxation without representation” is easy to trot out on virtually any occasion when it is perceived that government at any level is infringing on the rights of the individual citizen.

But there is truly no better example of this form of tyranny than the disenfranchisement of so large a portion of those who should be allowed to fully participate in the workings of their government.

Chuck Witt is a retired architect and a lifelong resident of Winchester. He can be reached at chuck740@bellsouth.net.