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Is it time to open Florida's primaries?
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Location: Blogs Marion Politics |
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| Posted by: Ocala.com Election Coverage |
4/22/2008 8:00 AM |
The heads of the local Republican and Democratic parties were asked this question: Do you think Florida should hold open primaries, allowing voters to cast their ballots for any candidate they choose?
Roy Abshier, chairman, Marion County Republican Executive Committee
I don't believe so. The system we have now has served us well for many years. A candidates party affiliation tells us a lot about where the candidate stands on many issues.Open primaries would tend to make the primaries to much of a personality contest and blur important issues. The general election of course enables the electorate to vote for either parties nominee.
Bruce Seaman, chairman, Marion County Democratic Party
A primary election allows the members of a political party to select the individual who will be their party’s candidate in a general election. That is a reasonable thing to allow political parties to do. “Open” primaries seem to defeat that purpose and actively undermine the role of political parties in the electoral process. We have some recent history locally to use as an example.
When a primary election has multiple candidates within one party, and no opposing candidate is fielded by the other party, the primary becomes “open,” meaning all voters are allowed to cast ballots, not simply voters registered in the competitive party. This “open” primary can be negated by the qualification of a write-in candidacy, a legally restricted candidacy as far as campaigning.
In last year’s special election for House District 24 when Democrats did not field a candidate, Republican Nancy Stacy used a write-in candidacy for the blatant purpose of blocking non-Republicans from voting in the Republican primary because of her perception that a moderate Republican candidate would benefit from non-Republican voters, gaining advantage of a split vote between two more conservative Republican candidates. While many of her reasons and statements were thoroughly contemptible, often inaccurate and uncivil, I felt she had a point, albeit made poorly. I reiterate what I said at the time to the Star-Banner, that if faced with the same circumstances, I wouldn’t mind seeing the primary closed to non-party voters, too. Nonetheless, I don’t feel that the current process really works. Stacy proved that, too.
In effect, Stacy’s action preserved the primary as the party’s decision-making action to identify its candidate – appropriately in my view. On the other hand, her action also ensured that voters had no choice in electing their representative in the general election. Bad idea.
Members of a political party deserve the right to identify their candidate, but voters also deserve the right to a choice when there are multiple candidates. Therefore, it would seem responsible for the two top vote getters in a primary election to be allowed to face off in a general election when the other party is not fielding an opponent. The party gets to identify its candidate, and then all voters get a choice in the general election.
(The economizing idea of having voters rank their voting preferences in a single open (primary) election sometimes has merits, but generally seems to sacrifice good process to save an expense that has already been budgeted. I’m not yet persuaded about this approach that has been actively discussed in Alachua County.) |
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Re: Is it time to open Florida's primaries? |
By Sonia on
5/4/2008 8:39 AM |
| It is my understanding that Barak Obama and his attorneys are stopping our votes from being counted because Hillary will benifit.<br>If she is not the nominee Obama will not get my vote. |
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Re: Is it time to open Florida's primaries? |
By sammy story on
5/6/2008 3:10 PM |
| why vote in a primary at all if they are not going to count the votes at the convention- none for the dems and half for the repubs- superdelegates that don't have to vote the way their district voted- and this is called a democracy-might as well eliminate the primaries altogether- i'm voting libitarian- go william rebone |
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Re: Is it time to open Florida's primaries? |
By Matt Zweil on
5/14/2008 9:40 PM |
| The purpose of the Primary Election process is to allow people who have chosen to be part of a specific political party to come together and form a majority consensus about whom they want to represent their party in the General Election. Creating an "open" primary system would diminish the efficacy of that process by (as just one example) allowing members of an opposing party to vote for the candidate in the other party that they feel is LEAST likely to be elected during the General Election. Consider also, by its nature, the General Election is always an "open" election, and provides all of the same proposed benefits of an "open" primary. Also, I understand where Chairman Seaman is coming from. The primary process has flaws and loopholes (as you explained with your example). However, if you refer back to the purpose of the primary election process, and hold that it is designed to identify the candidate that members of any specific political party want to have representing them in the General Election, then I'd say the primary system does the job effectively. Regards, Matt Zweil. |
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