Who Should Pay for Party Primaries?

I have been posting for awhile about private political parties should pay for their candidate selection process and then an open primary could take place with all potential candidates on one ballot. Better yet, just have the general election with some form of top two if no candidate gets 50% + 1.

Here is an open letter to Kansas City Star:

National and state primary elections serve only one purpose: enable political parties to select their candidates for the general election. Each primary election then is strictly an internal party function.

General elections are provided for in the Constitution, where political parties and party primaries are not mentioned. I contend that the political parties should finance their own primaries.

What law requires the federal and state governments to pay for primary elections? Why should tax money paid by independent voters, or by those who belong to parties that do not hold a primary, or by those who chose not to vote be used to finance the business of the major political parties?

If the major political parties can raise hundreds of millions of dollars to promote their candidates, they can afford to pay for their primaries.

The tax revenue now being used to subsidize party primaries could be used for programs that benefit all Americans.

As the mechanism for holding a primary election is already in place, it makes sense for the political parties to simply repay the government.

No doubt this would be opposed by those who think the private sector can do anything more efficiently than government.

Alan Hurlbut from Wichita, Kansas.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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