This could be the last time...

Matt Munson (who, as I previously mentioned), is live-blogging today's election, brought up an important point in his initial Election Day posting:

This is our last election where you can vote for a third party like Green or Libertarian. I hope Proposition 14 gets repealed....

Come 2012 we will only have the dog and pony show.

If you're not sure why Munson is making such an argument - didn't Proposition 14 promise open primaries? - then be sure to read what Kurt Hyde wrote in advance of Proposition 14's passage earlier this year. Here's an excerpt from Hyde's post:

The candidates who would be adversely affected the most by this are third-party candidates, independent candidates, and write-in candidates. In effect, they would find themselves unable to be on the ballot in the general election. While third party, independent, and write-in candidates are rarely elected to office, their influence has helped immeasurably in keeping many a so-called conservative at least reasonably on track during the campaign season by offering disenfranchised voters the opportunity to voice their disgust by casting a protest vote. Sometimes they are successful in being elected. Don’t forget Strom Thurmond was first elected to the U.S. Senate as a write-in candidate in 1954.

Frankly, the only way that a third-party candidate will become one of the top two vote-getters would be if the candidate has huge star power, exceeding that of, say, Ross Perot (although Theodore Roosevelt admittedly did well as a third-party candidate in 1912). Hmm...Rob Reiner? Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Anyway, as I write this you have less than 8 hours to go out and vote Peace and Freedom or whatever...