Washington State had open primaries for most of a century, but the federal courts have forced us back to partisan primaries, even though voters do not register by party.
The other alternative is a non-partisan primary, top three primary candidates advance to the general election regardless of party. More little-d democratic, but the pary bosses hate it. In heavily Democratic districts, you could end up with three Democrats in the general election and no other parties. vice-versa for heavily Republican districts.
The fact is, political parties are private organizations, not organs of the state. If they want to control their own nominations for the general election, they could always go back to party caucus nominations and stop demanding a public subsidy for private nominating elections.
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We should not limit our voting habits to party lines. Next up, we should not limit anyone to vote by citizenship…
There are too many labels that we live by, Republican, Democrat, Illegal Alien…
Washington State had open primaries for most of a century, but the federal courts have forced us back to partisan primaries, even though voters do not register by party.
The other alternative is a non-partisan primary, top three primary candidates advance to the general election regardless of party. More little-d democratic, but the pary bosses hate it. In heavily Democratic districts, you could end up with three Democrats in the general election and no other parties. vice-versa for heavily Republican districts.
The fact is, political parties are private organizations, not organs of the state. If they want to control their own nominations for the general election, they could always go back to party caucus nominations and stop demanding a public subsidy for private nominating elections.