Tuesday, February 6, 2018

VA Rejects Top-Two Open Primary


Several weeks ago, Del. Sam Rasoul (D-11th District) introduced HB 1129 to the Virginia General Assembly.

The Bill would have reformed Virginia’s Primaries to a Non-Partisan, Top-Two system similar to California and Washington.

Steve Richardson, Director of the Virginia Independent Voters Association, recently published an Op-Ed in The Virginia-Pilot in support of the Bill: “We no longer have a representative democracy. Voter turnout is low because all the real decisions are made by party die-hards, who are responsible for the agenda items least supported by the majority of voters. Our system has been turned upside down because party politics force candidates to cater to the few in the primary so they can make it onto the general election ballot.”

Richardson goes on to lay out the opportunity Virginia has: “A strong show of support by voters for Rasoul’s open primary bill — especially at this critical juncture in American politics — could persuade lawmakers of both major parties to do the right thing by passing this bill.”

On Thursday February 1st, Richardson testified on behalf of Del. Rasoul’s Non-Partisan, Top-Two Primaries Bill in front of Virginia’s Privileges and Elections Subcommittee.

While the Subcommittee voted the Bill down, both Richardson and Rasoul remain committed to bringing Non-Partisan Top-Two Primaries to the State of Virginia.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote! Michael H. Drucker
Digg! StumbleUpon

2 comments:

richardwinger said...

Nebraska does not have a top-two system. Nebraska has semi-closed primaries for president, congress, partisan county office, and partisan state executive offices. It has a non-partisan legislature.

mhdrucker said...

I updated the post.