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Closed Primaries

DeaconCav06

DeaconCav06

Dickie Hemric
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So, I went to get my FL drivers license today and register to vote and am asked to affiliate with a party.

I asked her if I had to and she informs me that if I don't register with one or the other I will be unable to vote in the primary.

This strikes me as a horrendously bad option. If only Republicans who are willing to self identify you get candidates like Romney and Santorum. If moderate and conservative democrats and independents vote you get a more palatable candidate.
 
This is pretty common isn't it?
 
DeaconCav06 said:
So, I went to get my FL drivers license today and register to vote and am asked to affiliate with a party.

I asked her if I had to and she informs me that if I don't register with one or the other I will be unable to vote in the primary.

This strikes me as a horrendously bad option. If only Republicans who are willing to self identify you get candidates like Romney and Santorum. If moderate and conservative democrats and independents vote you get a more palatable candidate.
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i mean, if you join a party for its values and commit yourself to that little R or D, i think you -as a party member- should have the say in voting for who best represents those values to go before the masses. the rest of the people can decide if you chose wisely in the general election. if you do register as independent i think NC has it right, in that you can vote in one but only one... but not registering for one at all i have no problem w/ you not being able to vote in the primaries.
 
DeaconCav06 said:
So, I went to get my FL drivers license today and register to vote and am asked to affiliate with a party.

I asked her if I had to and she informs me that if I don't register with one or the other I will be unable to vote in the primary.

This strikes me as a horrendously bad option. If only Republicans who are willing to self identify you get candidates like Romney and Santorum. If moderate and conservative democrats and independents vote you get a more palatable candidate.
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Why do people act like Romney was some hyper conservative choice? He is quite moderate by Republican standards and his attempt to paint himself as more conservative led to his endless pattern of flip flops and nuanced positions.
 
Since FL was my only voting experience, I was shocked when I got to Georgia that there is no registering with a party. You walk in to your polling place and on Election Day just say whether you want the R ballot, the D ballot, or neither (if there are nonpartisan issues on the ballot). You can only vote in one that day. But, if you vote in the R primary and then there is a runoff for a D nomination, you can show up and vote in the D runoff. I think this system can lead to sabotage voting - for example, there was no D primary this year, so a D could show up and vote for Santorum (or whomever you thought was the best candidate for Obama to run against) in the R primary.
 
A lot of sabotage voting against Hillary in MS thinking Obama was the weaker candidate. That worked out well for them I think.
 
When you have open primaries, you open yourself up to the kinds of shenanigans you see with open primaries, such as Democrats trying to fuck with the nomination process of Republicans and vice versa. Closed primaries are the best option, IMO.
 
You can't have an open primary. As ELC said, it would be very dangerous. I'd actually support completely closed primaries that didn't allow independents the ability to choose a party and vote.
 
Wrangor said:
A lot of sabotage voting against Hillary in MS thinking Obama was the weaker candidate. That worked out well for them I think.
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Haha. Seriously? Man, people amaze me. Either one of those candidates was going to win in a walk.
 
I guess Mississippians might have thought there was no way a black guy could be president.
 
RJKarl said:
You can't have an open primary. As ELC said, it would be very dangerous. I'd actually support completely closed primaries that didn't allow independents the ability to choose a party and vote.
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This is such an awful idea. What if you want to vote one party nationally but local politics require you to register with another party to have a voice?

We should have an open primary where the top two vote-getters move on to a runoff. You vote for one candidate regardless of party. It seems to work just fine in pretty much every other country in the world.
 
They actually have that in CA for at least the Assembly. A guy named Mansoor got another RWer to run as a Dem. Got him funded and the guy came in second as few Dems voted.

The guy "spent" almost $90,000 in the primary and under $9000 in the general election. The GOP effectively funded someone to run unopposed.

Top two runoff is a terrible idea. It gives those with lots of money an easy to fix an election.
 
I agree with mike. I've thought about this issue a lot, and I feel closed primaries is a huge problem. In national and local elections. I understand you dont want sabotage voting, but that's why you put all nominees on the ballot for the primary. So, this year you'd put every single presidential candidate on the ballot in the primary. From Obama to Roseanne Barr. Top two vote getters nationwide run for President.
 
RJKarl said:
They actually have that in CA for at least the Assembly. A guy named Mansoor got another RWer to run as a Dem. Got him funded and the guy came in second as few Dems voted.

The guy "spent" almost $90,000 in the primary and under $9000 in the general election. The GOP effectively funded someone to run unopposed.

Top two runoff is a terrible idea. It gives those with lots of money an easy to fix an election.
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Sounds like the guy who "fixed" the election would've won regardless. If few Dems voted, then that's their problem. What you described is a much bigger problem in elections with closed primaries. For example, there was a heated local election among two republican candidates. In order to make the primary "closed", you need a democrat to run too. So, one of the candidates, knowing his opposition would be more likely to get the democrat and independent vote, paid someone to run for the position as a democrat. It closed the primary and got the guy the nomination. After the primary, the democrat dropped out of the race.
 
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You don't have it just for POTUS. You'll have it for every office and it there will be constant cases like the one in Costa Mesa.

It's a nice theory but doesn't work.

It also allows for one party elections. In practical usage it's a terrible idea.
 
RJKarl said:
You don't have it just for POTUS. You'll have it for every office and it there will be constant cases like the one in Costa Mesa.

It's a nice theory but doesn't work.

It also allows for one party elections. In practical usage it's a terrible idea.
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No, I agree we should have it for all elections. Not just POTUS. I was just using that as an example.

There's pros and cons to both as in the example I gave. I think it minimizes the power of the parties, which, to me, is a good thing.
 
No open primaries give the rich and parties far more power than they have today. A party can know their guy can 35-40% of the primary vote and run someone else to keep the other party from having representation.

This is a terrible idea in practice.
 
RJKarl said:
No open primaries give the rich and parties far more power than they have today. A party can know their guy can 35-40% of the primary vote and run someone else to keep the other party from having representation.

This is a terrible idea in practice.
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I dont know. Again, using the POTUS as an example, Obama runs. No doubt he would've gotten at least 40% of the primary vote. Would the dems really put up another shill to run? What democrat would vote for this shill at the risk of Obama losing votes?

I've personally never lived in a state with this voting system, so I'm not familiar with it how it works. All I know is the closed primary disenfranchises a lot of voters. In the example I gave, there were thousands of democrats and independents who didnt get the chance to vote for their guy because of shenanigans. At least in your scenario, people had the opportunity to vote for their guy, but chose to stay at home.
 
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