There has been a lot of talk lately about allowing voters to cross party lines (or not even be a member of a party) and vote in a partisan primary. The latest is here from the Tucson Citizen. Just to give you a quick overview: Sentor Bill Harper wants to give Independents and Republicans the right to vote in any primary (but not Democrats). I am not worried so much about his inconsistance and favoritism towards Republicans because frankly it is a non-starter as long as Janet is governor.
Here is the question I pose: Why is it wrong for a political party to have a partisan primary to choose that party's representative? There is an easier and better solution to this problem. Allow voters to switch their party registration. Oh, wait they can already do that... Ok, how about letting voters register and change their party registration of Election Day? I know what you are thinking, but that would just solve the problem, allow for greater participation and not allow for the Republicans in the legislature to make a bone-headed decision. But wait wouldn't that open up our elections to fraud because all of those "illegals" waiting to vote in every election (at least according to the Prop 200/nativist crowd and they couldn't be wrong?) would register on Election Day and vote for the Aztlán Peoples Party candidate.
Seriously, if you want to vote in a partisan primary, just register as a member of that party and your problem is solved. If you don't like political parties, sorry you only get to vote in the general election.
Note the Prop 200/nativist crowd: Most immigrants are too busy cleaning up your yard, cooking your meals, cleaning your homes, building that extension on your house, taking care of your kids and generally working too hard for too little money to vote.
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Sorry, but a party spokesman already alerted us concerning the real reason for Proposition 200. Bill Bridwell, a Pinal County Republican Party spokesman now on the state committee of his party, boasted that Proposition 200 stopped the rapid increase in independent voters in the state. He was not speaking idly. Here are the statistics for independent voter registration since 2000.
2000-2002 107,715
2002-2004 165,771
2004-2006 26,483
The real purpose of Proposition 200 was to remove a check box labeled No Party Preference from the voter registration form leaving only space marked Specify Party Preference. Other than to require photo Id at the polls, Proposition 200 did nothing but remove the option to register independent. Illegal aliens are still free to go to County recorders, obtain voter registration forms, and register voters because deputy registrars in Arizona were abolished to nullify a court case in 1992 seeking re-instatement of independent deputy registrars, who had been dismissed in 1988.
With regard to your primary, until political parties invented party primaries, all voters in America were registered as American citizens registered to vote, which is how independent voters are still registered to vote. Party primaries were an attempt by parties to Europeanize American politics and involve America in European things: World War I, the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Desert Storm, and Iraq.
But if political parties want to have party primary elections, I am all for it as long as they do not want me as an independent voter to pay for their private club elections. No other private club elections are government subsidized. Let parties use some of the money they scam from voters to pay for their exclusive primary elections. As an independent voter I am not really interested in their corrupt candidates anyway.
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