Posted on 09/08/2006 10:05:06 PM PDT by TWohlford
In practice, only two sets of party bosses -- the Republicans and Democrats -- have privileged places on the ballot. In most states, the Libertarians and/or Greens have drawn enough voters to routinely qualify.
Let the people form parties then choose a candidate within that party to represent it in the general election, then the public at large makes their chose from those candidates.
Did you see the recall ballot in California a few years ago? That's the kind of chaos you get when the barriers to ballot entry are low, and when they're high, the "start your own party" plan is an exercise in futility. The kind of multi-party balloting you suggest could be workable, and in fact works in other countries, but it would require major changes in electoral law nationwide and probably wouldn't be very popular.
To now give the government power over how the people choose their party's candidates can do more harm than good.
In most cases, it is the major parties themselves (at least at the presidential level) that made the change from a caucus/convention system to primaries, because it gave them more competitive candidates. The Greens and Libertarians manage to choose candidates without primaries.
In other cases, the nominating process was a means of disenfranchisng voters -- by which I don't mean the loose definition used by Dems today, but literally ensuring that some folks were not allowed to vote in any meaningful way.
To clarify, it seems to me that what you're suggesting is something more than the closed primary -- in which only voters registered with a party may vote in the primary, but anyone may register with the party -- and toward a system in which the party leadership may control its membership. Correct?
Actually it is a Federal Republic. Representative republic is kind of redundant. I believe the solution like I side is one ballot, an one vote per person. That way you can only pick the best from the list, regardless of party. The parties are corrupt, and are destroying our country. Breaking their power would do a lot of good.
Hey, I crossed over in '04 to vote for Dean. He dropped out the next day! LOL
I'm against having to register to a party.
As a voter I shouldn't be limited to one affiliation.
"I'm against having to register to a party.
As a voter I shouldn't be limited to one affiliation"
I have never registered for a party, and I am not allowed to vote in the parties primary process.
At any time I am free to change my registration.
Me too. Allowing just anybody to vote in a party primary defeats the purpose of having one.
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