Among the many bills signed by the governor last week was one that cancels the right of workers to have an election if a union wants to organize them.

The bill, HB 2891, allows a union to be recognized for collective bargaining with a public agency if it manages to get more than half the public employees who are members of a prospective bargaining unit to sign cards.

We hear a lot about the importance of elections and how they must be kept free from coercion and undue influence, but according to the the governor and the Democrats who pushed this change into law, this does not apply to decisions that affect whether somebody has to give up part of his pay to a union in the form of dues.

We could save a little time and probably money if we applied this same principle to other decisions. If half the voters sign a petition to increase taxes, let's just skip the election and put the increase into effect. Or if more than 50 percent sign recall petitions, let's just throw that official out right away instead of waiting for everybody to take a vote.

If the secret ballot is no good when it comes to labor decisions, why preserve it for politics or other issues in the public domain? (hh)