What is an Open Primary?

Thanks to The Ballot Access News for this post.

The United States have no consistent definition of “open primary”. The term means something different in almost every state.

In Pennsylvania: “open primary” means a closed primary in which the party organization makes no endorsement.

In Illinois: has never asked voters to choose a party when they fill out voter registration forms. Illinois primary rules require voters at the polls on primary day to publicly ask for one party’s primary ballot.

In California: “open primary” means a top-two system starting in 2011.

In Florida: “open primary” means a blanket primary.

In Kentucky: “open primary” means a closed primary in which independents can choose any party’s primary to vote in.

I believe in the pure open primary where all candidates are on one primary ballot with the option of displaying the logo of their party, declare as an Independent, declare no party, and the logo of endorsement with the top two going to the general election is the fairest change to the current systems. This would still give the parties the ability to have their preferred selection method but also allow other party candidates to get into the game. The biggest question would be how write-in votes would be countered.

What system do you like?

NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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