A pair of related bills under consideration by the state General Assembly this year are ill-conceived and should not be passed.

Senate Bill 50 and House Bill 50 would make it mandatory that local elections be partisan, meaning those running have to declare a party affiliation and run in a primary and then in the general election under their party affiliation.

Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, and Rep. Matt Lockett, R-Nicholasville, are sponsoring Senate Bill 50 and House Bill 50.

The law would apply to all city, county and school board elections, except candidates running in independent school districts or at-large races “without a specific representation of a division or a ward.”

During a recent appearance on Kentucky Tonight, Thayer and Lockett said the bill aims to increase candidate transparency and accountability.

“I believe voters should have the most amount of info possible when they go into the polls to cast their votes, and the number one step we could take to tell people about who they’re voting for is for people to declare their political party,” Thayer said.

But decisions made on a city, town, county or school-board level are generally not the same kind made by state-level or national legislators. Indeed, voting based on party label can, and has, created instances where wholly unqualified candidates, Republican and Democrat, have been elected simply because of the letter that appears after their name,

The bills would also take away control from local legislative bodies, forcing on them a state-mandated system. The measures could also be costly, requiring local governments to hold much larger primary elections.

That’s why a growing number of local governments are formally passing resolutions urging that the bills not be passed – Paducah and Owensboro being the latest.

Voters, or course, should know as much about their candidates as possible. But voting simply based on party affiliation is the opposite of making a truly informed choice.

The bottom line is we don’t need to interject more partisan politics in our processes and we oppose these flawed bills.

-The Bowling Green, Kentucky Times