[EM] Getting rid of primary

[Tony Simmons]

>> From: MIKE OSSIPOFF
>> Subject: [EM] no primary

>> Anthony wrote:

>> In other words, two
>> round runoff.  No more primary.

>> Not that big a change.

>> I reply:

>> Getting rid of the primary and switching from Plurality to
>> Runoff are big changes. [...]

You left out some things.  The plan that was suggested does
not get rid of an ordinary primary, but an open primary, in
which anyone can vote for any candidate.  So in the first
round of the original system (called the "primary") the top
candidate from each party advances, while in the replacement,
the top two candidates advance.  In Washington, that will
give exactly the same result, at least unless one of the
third parties gets to the point of seriously splitting the
vote.  The whole idea with this plan was to save the way
things are done in Washington while still complying with the
Supreme Court decision.

So they really aren't getting rid of a primary, so much as
going from one type of two round runoff to another.

>> [...] Runoff is better than Plurality and better than IRV.
>> Now if they could just make the small additional change to
>> Runoff Approval. I prefer plain Approval, but Runoff
>> Approval is a smaller change from Runoff.

>> Getting rid of primaries is great. It never made any sense
>> to me that the public have to subsidize political parties'
>> internal voting. Ridiculous.

>> Worse than ridiculous, because it amounts to giving
>> parties official status with the state. The public
>> election system has no business recognizing parties to the
>> extent of sponsoring their internal voting.