its time to end primary elections

[moonshinegnomie]

let all the candidates who wish to run be on the general election ballot. no more primary elections which is one of the reasons that there are so many extremist candidates. they know that they only have to appeal to the hard core base to win the primary leading to extremist candidates.

require x number of signatures to get on the general election ballot. let all who qualify be on the ballot. toss in ranked choice voting as well .

[Tetrachloride]

1. disagree

untested method

[jimfields33]

2. So a president could win with 20 percent or even less depending on numbers.

I think that could be a disaster.

[Attilatheblond]

3. uh, no. Anarchy is not the answer. n/t

[J_William_Ryan]

4. Federal elections are the sole purview of the states.

And the states aren’t going to eliminate the primary process, nor can they be compelled to do so.

[brooklynite]

7. No they're not...

With respect to the nomination of Presidential candidates, the ultimate authority lays with the National and State Parties who can choose to have Primaries, Caucuses, or decisions made by State Party Committees. Remember, you're NOT voting for a Presidential candidate; you're voting for delegates to a national Convention, who can have whatever autonomy their State Parties grant them.

[lastlib]

10. Correct.

Primaries are party elections--a method for choosing candidates of a party for an office, or, in the case of presidential primaries, party convention delegates who are generally pledged to support a particular candidate. Primaries are the most democratic means of winnowing out the least popular candidates and selecting the party's most popular candidate. Keep 'em.

[genxlib]

5. Two thoughts

As someone who voted on the infamous butterfly ballot in Palm Beach County 2000, history has shown that people struggle with long and complicated ballots.

As a separate thought, I would only advocate for that if we had instant run off voting. But I don't see that happening in the near future.

But I do agree that the two party system is broken. Since so many people have abandoned the party to be independents, they have only left the hard core behind to nominate the hard core politicians.

[Casady1]

8. In order to go to a multi party

System you have to go to a parliamentary form of government.

[brooklynite]

6. A beyond stupid proposal.

You seriously want an election with 25-50 candidates on the ballot?

[MichMan]

12. Plus how would the order on the ballot be determined?

Alphabetical?

A voter would need to go down a dozen or more names before finding the candidate of their choice?

[Retrograde]

14. Randomized, like California

has been doing for decades.

[MichMan]

15. OK, so same issue.

50 names on the ballot and your choice is buried in the middle somewhere. I'm sure no one will ever make the wrong choice by accident.

[Retrograde]

17. Read the voters' guide beforehand

Last edited Sun Aug 6, 2023, 08:25 PM - Edit history (1)

to pick your preferred candidate, then look at your sample ballot - which should have arrived about 5 weeks before the election (if not, the info is on line) - and locate your choice. If you want, mark your sample ballot so when your actual ballot arrives you can easily find the candidate you want to vote for.

Of course, it helps that California sends sample ballots to all registered voters, and has no-excuse mail-in voting for all registered voters, and mails ballots to all registered users. When Kamala Harris was running in the primary for the Senate, she was in the middle of a field of more-than-I-have-fingers-and-toes and while it took a while, voters had no problem finding her.

To make things even more unbiased (or complicated, if you will), the listing of candidates differs in each State Assembly district, so no one candidate will have the advantage of being first. It's done in the interests of fairness - the candidate on the first line is more likely to get votes from less informed voters, so the state mixes up the order so no one candidate has a state-wide advantage.

All that's for the primary. In general elections there are only 2 names for each office, except for president, where there can be as many as 6 (one for each party in the state). Of course, we make up for that by putting as many elections as possible on the same ballot, which is why they're usually 5+ pages.

[brooklynite]

20. I'd say 95% of Counties don't publish a "Voter's Guide"

[Retrograde]

21. Then maybe they should

and join the Western states in the 21st century. It's as if some states (yeah, I'm looking at you, New York, since I know most about your election practices) are reluctant to look outside the box for better voting practices. And I'm not even looking at places like Texas and Florida that are going backwards on voting rights.

I actually get two voters' guides for each election - one from the county that covers local elections and one from the state that covers state-wide ones.

Anyway, getting back to the OP, eliminating primaries for state and local elections does not seem like a good idea. OTOH, sometimes I think we got better presidential candidates when they were chosen in smoke-filled rooms.

[brooklynite]

22. If your goal is just to imagine a better election system, however unlikely it is...

...just eliminate the middle-man and imagine people not voting for radical candidates.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

24. So you're going to pay for the Voting Guides...when?

Some states do not have the luxury of spending that kind of money on a voter's guide.

So when do you start paying for them?

[MichMan]

28. We could even require voters to pass a test proving they read it before being allowed to vote

[TwilightZone]

19. More like a thousand.

More than 1200 people filed to run in 2020.

https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54334173

[Glorfindel]

9. I'm old enough to remember when we had county and district caucuses

here in Georgia. The people who attended them were Democrats! We got some really good candidates as a result of these caucuses.

[marybourg]

11. Yes, let's change every longstanding institution

that did or could have possibly contributed to the accession to the presidency of the worst president in our history. Because, you know, knee-jerk reactions produce better results.

[elocs]

13. This is a case where the author clearly needs to self-delete their thread. n/t

[Hermit-The-Prog]

16. Why? Has the discussion not been civil and informative?

[TwilightZone]

18. Hundreds of people run for president in each party every cycle.

More than 1200 people filed to run in 2020.

https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-54334173

It would be kind of ridiculous to put them all on the ballot.

[BlueSpot]

26. Combine that with recent reductions in polling places -

Done to make long lines discourage voters, and you'd be making that situation way worse. Three or four names and I can find the one I'm looking for in a moment. 1,200? Yikes. And how many are duplicate names like Smith or Brown? What a cluster fuck.

[emulatorloo]

23. No. See post above.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

25. I'm not digging through 1200 names

To satisfy political ignorance.

[blogslug]

27. It's not our fault that the GOP is bound to a base that's full of racists, sexists, etc

Make then fix their own damned business