Primaries should remain bastion of parties

In their commentary "Open primaries long overdue in New York," Jan. 17, John Opdycke and Jeremy Gruber whine about not being able to vote in primaries because they aren't registered in a political party. In my life, I have been both a registered Republican and a registered Democrat. And now I am not registered in any political party — my choice. Thus, I lose my chance to vote in a party's primary — also my choice.

I believe that only members of a political party should be able to vote for their choice of party candidates and that those candidates should also be members of the party. With apologies to Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, his attempt to co-op the Democratic nomination without being a member of the party was both dishonest and immoral.

After all, in any organization — be it a union, a fraternal organization or anything else — only the membership gets to vote for the organization's officers, who are also members of that organization. How stupid would it be to elect nonmembers to positions of responsibility or allow non-members to vote on the choices.

Opdycke and Gruber bemoan the low voter turnout in federal primaries. The reason for the low turnout is because New York state's primaries are so late in the year that the nominees have already been determined by the time New York voters get the opportunity to vote. If they truly want to fix this, they should be lobbying for a National Primary Day — one day when all federal primaries take place nationwide. When people think their vote counts, they will turn out to vote, and, they will join the party that has a primary that interests them the most or that aligns the most with their beliefs.

The two men who wrote the commentary want the rights and privileges of registered party members without any of the responsibilities.

Marianne Bailey

Glenville