Changng Pa into an open voting state

[Kimba]

Does anyone have any info on what would be involved to try make to make Pa an open voting state?

I am tired of the 2 party system here and would like to see all parties represented in the primaries.

Alrhough I consider myself more of a Libertarian, I am registered as a R so I can vote in the primaries.

Any ideas?

[Siobhra]

I am not sure that is a very good idea.

Party X has two people running. Your favorite is winning by a very large margin.
Party Z has two people running. The person who stands the best chance to beat your man is winning. You vote in their party in the primary for the one who does not stand a chance to beat your person.

The anti-gun crowd might find all the Democrats running are anti-gun. So they vote for the Republican that is weakest on gun rights.

[Kimba]

I am not sure that is a very good idea.

Party X has two people running. Your favorite is winning by a very large margin.
Party Z has two people running. The person who stands the best chance to beat your man is winning. You vote in their party in the primary for the one who does not stand a chance to beat your person.

The anti-gun crowd might find all the Democrats running are anti-gun. So they vote for the Republican that is weakest on gun rights.

Let's say that you are registered as Party X and your man is winning.

As it stands now, in the primaries, you cannot vote for the Party Z person that does not have a chance of winning against your person of choice.

If your favorite candidate is a Party Y, you cannot cast a vote for them.

[pirateron]

I am not sure that is a very good idea.

Party X has two people running. Your favorite is winning by a very large margin.
Party Z has two people running. The person who stands the best chance to beat your man is winning. You vote in their party in the primary for the one who does not stand a chance to beat your person.

The anti-gun crowd might find all the Democrats running are anti-gun. So they vote for the Republican that is weakest on gun rights.

Let's say that you are registered as Party X and your man is winning.

As it stands now, in the primaries, you cannot vote for the Party Z person that does not have a chance of winning against your person of choice.

If your favorite candidate is a Party Y, you cannot cast a vote for them.

Lets take it a step farther, most recent presidential election time..

Say you belong to Party C, in which case you cannot vote in a primary at all, and you like your candidate. Lets say those running in both parties A & B are all assbags and you wouldn't want any of em in office.

2 things wrong:
1- not being an R or D, prevents you from participating in our right to the election process
2- fraudulently representing oneself as a _ while really being a _ undermines our whole Deomcratic process.

Mainly, PA, as well as the rest of the country have been dumbed down thanks to the two party system. Too many have bought into this system because its easier to be herded by the R party or the D party. We are a Country of choices, except politically, you must be D or R or your candidate has no chance of winning, issues be damned.

[Kimba]

Lets take it a step farther, most recent presidential election time..

Say you belong to Party C, in which case you cannot vote in a primary at all, and you like your candidate. Lets say those running in both parties A & B are all assbags and you wouldn't want any of em in office.

2 things wrong:
1- not being an R or D, prevents you from participating in our right to the election process
2- fraudulently representing oneself as a _ while really being a _ undermines our whole Deomcratic process.

Mainly, PA, as well as the rest of the country have been dumbed down thanks to the two party system. Too many have bought into this system because its easier to be herded by the R party or the D party. We are a Country of choices, except politically, you must be D or R or your candidate has no chance of winning, issues be damned.

Exactly, you explained it better than I.

There have been times in the primaries that I preferred the candidate in the opposing party. Rather than vote for my parties person, that I didn't like, I would not cast a vote in that race.

[Statkowski]

Simpler response:

Hillsdale High School and Parker High School are each going to send their best debaters to the State Debate Championship. Who gets to choose Hillsdale's debater from three potential candidates. Would that be Hillsdale students or students from both Hillsdale and Parker High Schools? Likewise, who gets to choose Parker's debater?

It would seem logical that each school gets to vote only in its own election.

If one school could also vote in the other school's election, they could easily sabotage the entire concept of each school sending its best participant.

Registered voters for Party A should be the only ones getting to pick Party A's candidates. The same holds true with Party B. And, if there's a Party C, the same holds true.

Getting a third (or fourth) party on the ballot is a related but separate issue. It can be done, but is a complicated and long, drawn-out process. The process should be simplified. But, it's a separate issue from who gets to vote in whose primary election.

[LittleRedToyota]

If your favorite candidate is a Party Y, you cannot cast a vote for them.

yeah, you can. just change party affiliations. i do it all the time.

even though i also hate the "two party system", i am strongly against open primaries. why should democrats get to choose the republican nominee or vice-versa? that just doesn't make any sense to me...or seem fair.

[LittleRedToyota]

2 things wrong:
1- not being an R or D, prevents you from participating in our right to the election process

no it doesn't. you still get to vote in the actual election. all the primary is is a method of parties choosing who their nominee is. why should someone who is not a member of that party be able to have a vote in that? that would be kinda like allowing canadians to vote in the american election.

2- fraudulently representing oneself as a _ while really being a _ undermines our whole Deomcratic process.

if you actually join the party for the primary, you are not fraudulently representing yourself at all...you actually are a member of that party at that time.

Too many have bought into this system because its easier to be herded by the R party or the D party. We are a Country of choices, except politically, you must be D or R or your candidate has no chance of winning, issues be damned.

i don't see how open primaries would change that. in fact, they risk turning it into essentially a one-party system...in fact, if you ask many republicans, that is exactly what happened in the last presidential primary--the states with open primaries had a bunch of democrats choosing john mccain as the republican nominee even though republicans voted otherwise which meant we essentially had two democrats running in the general election.

i don't know if that actually happened or not, but open primaries certainly do make that possible.

[Brick]

Voting in primaries is for party members. So differences can be ironed out within the party.

I would much rather see Pa allow all candidates to appear on the ballot as long as they meet the legal requirements for the office and meet the filing requirements to be on the ballot.

[tdyoung58]

Let's say that you are registered as Party X and your man is winning.

As it stands now, in the primaries, you cannot vote for the Party Z person that does not have a chance of winning against your person of choice.

If your favorite candidate is a Party Y, you cannot cast a vote for them.

That's because most Y parties don't have more than one candidate running to begin with, if they have one at all. There are about 78 registered political parties in PA. I don't agree with your Open Primary thinking. But we seriously need to do more for Ballot access in PA where the parties can actually be on a voting machine / ticket. In the last Generel Election here, the Constitution Party wasn't even on the ticket in my voting district. Even though it's the 4th largest political party in the Nation.