Everyone should be allowed to vote in EVERY election – no matter what party they are or aren’t in.

We must repeal open primaries. They encourage partisanship and encourage and incentivize politicians to appeal to their base instead of appealing to a majority of the electorate, thereby pushing more partisan and extremist candidates. They harm candidates that a majority of people agree with simply because they aren’t the largest faction in the party, and end up creating a spoiler effect where voters vote for the lesser of the two evils. Voting should be about electing governments that fix things not ones who destroy our lives the least. They alienate independents making them unable to vote, and because of our first past the post system and the spoiler effect they are unable to vote for candidates that believe will govern the best at the ballot box in the general elections. Not only should we replace closed primaries with open primaries, we should replace closed primaries with the most democratic and American primaries: Nonpartisan Blanket Primaries with give voters the most choice and they don’t have to choose between parties at the ballot box either.

closed primaries are just another hoop for voters to jump through in order to access their constitutional right to freely express their choice for representation. it is an archaic, outdated “status quo” for which there is no excuse NOT to amend & update to reflect the needs of current society. end closed primaries NOW.

Mark mellott