Three elections are one too many

Former Gov. Edwin Edwards brought Louisiana some good things during his clouded tenure as the state’s chief executive. One of them was how to hold elections.

Louisiana may have its shortcomings in other ways. But in holding elections, it leads the way.

Voting machines here paved the way to honest and efficient elections many years ago, long before other states even knew there were such things. Seldom have we heard of election results being questioned here, thanks to our long-term use of the mechanized method of voting.

Back when Edwards was running for re-election, he had to go through two heated Democratic primaries before he emerged the winner in the runoff.

Whew! That should have been enough. But it wasn’t.

Up came the general election with that fella Dave Treen at his throat. Edwards prevailed but it led to his spearheading the creation of open primaries in which candidates of all primaries ran in one primary and the two leaders in the general election.

We existed very peacefully for many years under that system until the federal government decided we could not use open primaries for election of  the President and U. S. Senators and Congressmen from Louisiana because it didn’t match the patterns used in other states. Now we’re back to the three-election system.

In New Orleans this weekend, we have a Congressional election that has already been through two Democratic primaries and now has a contest between the Democratic winner and Republican challenger. The fact that the Democratic winner is indicted incumbent William Jefferson does not miniscule the problem.

Jefferson led in a close vote over a crowded field of worthwhile opponents, all except one of which was black. The white candidate ran second.

Had any of the other black candidates come out second, chances are, they would have won easily in the runoff primary and easily beaten the lone white Republican in the general election this Saturday. But Jefferson was the winner and now faces his third vote.

In the good old days when Louisiana called the shots with its open primary system, it would all be over now.  The Democrats and Republicans would have all faced each other in the first primary election and two black Democratic candidates would probably have emerged for the tell-all runoff general election.

Louisianians still enjoy the benefits of the open primary system for state and local alections. Too bad we can’t continue to benefit from it when we choose our Senators and Congressmen.