In PA you can’t vote in the primaries,unless you are registered D or R.
It would be great if we can figure out how to make ALL elections OPENED for ALL American citizen voters.
UPDATE> thank you for these good, thought provoking responses… Iwill definitely be rethinking my position.
3 Likes
That’s a matter for you to take up with the Parties.
Alternatively, you should consider registering with a Party.
As it turns out, being the member of a party doesn’t come with any obligations, not even the obligation to vote for your party. All it does is mean that you are a registered member of that party.
And it’s really easy to change your party registration based on which party you want to vote for in the primaries, too.
Same in NY.
1 Like
Independent is what I’ve been my whole life and have no interest in joining either side. But opening primaries to anyone would be messy and it could backfire because opposing parties can sabotage a candidate.
2 Likes
And that right there more than anything is the biggest problem.
It’s not even theoretical, we have seen efforts to hijack primaries in action, and quite possibly successful efforts too.
Perhaps the most notable case recently is when during the New Hampshire Primary you had people voting for Nikki Haley who admitted on the record that they had no intention of voting for Haley if she actually pulled off the impossible, they just voted for her because they wanted to stop Trump.
I also speak as someone from South Dakota, where we just defeated a “Top Two Open Primary” amendment (Amendment H) by a sizable margin. In short, the amendment would have made South Dakota elections match those in California.
Currently, Primaries in South Dakota are such that the Republicans have established that you have to be a Republican to run in the Republican primary. The Democrats, on the other hand, have said that both Democrats and Independents can vote in the Democrat primary.
Fun fact - the Democrats opening the door to Independents has done between ‘little’ and ‘nothing’ to help them win against Republicans in the state.
Anyway, with Amendment H, it became a rare circumstance that united Democrats and Republicans against it. The state Democrat party actually came out against Amendment H because they realized that if it passed, the Democrats would probably never see a major Democrat candidate in the general election ever again.
The Grassroots Republicans were against Amendment H because they knew it would get in the way of enacting real change.
So the most vocal people in favor of Amendment H were actually the establishment Republicans, who viewed it as a way of stopping ‘political upstarts’ from undermining the will of the establishment. The Establishment Republicans even admitted to as much, and the Establishment support for H ramped up in a major way after the primary election saw roughly a dozen incumbent Republicans lose their primary races to grassroots challengers.
So the campaign on H basically became some Independents and Establishment Republicans against all the parties (even the 3rd parties recognized they’d be shut out) and Independents who recognized that all Amendment H would really do was ensure that every major race from there on out would basically be Republican vs Republican with the Establishment holding all the cards.
Amendment H ultimately lost by I think nearly a 2/3rds margin.
Ultimately, if a party wants to open its primaries to people who are not in that party, they are free to do so. But by no means should parties be required to open their primaries to people who can’t commit to being a member of that Party.
2 Likes
Exquisitely said! Excellent explanation as to why primaries are not open to everyone.
1 Like
This is not an enumerated power. The parties have the right to decide who should represent them. If you are not a member of the party, you have not right to impact their primary election.
2 Likes
oh yesI changed from independent to republican, to make sure I could vote for Trump, I will keep that registration, to continue to vote in the primaries.
2 Likes
oic, hmm… good thinking
Thank you, very interesting,and brings me to rethink my position…thanks!
2 Likes
Political parties are PRIVATE First Amendment associations. If you don’t belong to one, you have no right to take part in their selection of candidates to represent them. On the other hand, AS private organizations, there is NO basis for public funds to be used to facilitate their PRIVATE selection of candidates. Parties to pay for ALL expense in choosing candidates in a primary. Only general elections should be funded by public funds.
1 Like
If that isn’t the way it is now, then I would not be opposed to parties being required to fund their own primaries so far as is reasonable.