The Independent View: Primaries Open or Closed

Across the nation the major parties are trying to keep their primaries closed.

At a hearing Thursday morning in a Greenville, federal courtroom, South Carolina Republicans hoped a federal judge would set the stage for closed primaries that require voters to register by party.

View this report from WFF4.com.

But for me, open is not the entire answer. OK, if open I can select one of the primaries when I go to vote. But that is not how I vote. I vote for the candidates. So without all the candidates on a single ballot, I am stuck. The constitution has articles and amendments that puts the administration in the hands of the states. But it allows the states to decide how they are run under their election laws. And with the budget problems we have, why do we need state run primaries. We just need elections.

To create a system to answer all the Supreme Court issues, I would create a General Election ballot system with these features:

1. All Candidates selected by their parties (Major and Minor) paid for system.

2. A fee or petition process for non-selected major and minor party candidates.

3. A fee or petition process for independents.

5. A fee or petition process for non-qualified party candidates. It would be up to the state to determine the process to become a qualified party.

6. Write-ins.

Ballot Format

There would be two boxes next to the candidate's name: One optionally indicates the candidates registered party, the other optionally indicates all endorsements.

A possible additional element in the primary could be IRV. This would allow your first selection of a favorite son or daughter, vanity candidate, etc., and the use of other selections to rank your choices.

I would use the 50% + 1 to decide if we need to go to a Top Two Runoff.