Open primaries better serve the will of the people in Florida
The Orlando Sentinel’s excellent reporting by Jason Garcia and Annie Martin on “ghost” candidates and Scott Maxwell’s columns on the same subject exemplify what newspapers are about.
The so-called “ghost candidate” dirty trick is yet another reason why we are witnessing the end of our democracy. Dark money and gerrymandering are also spoiling the political process. All three must cease if we are to continue with the current system.
Political parties herd their voters into a silo and prevent any intrusion from the party line, and neglect candidates other than those chosen by the political party. Unfortunately, if a worthy idea comes from the opposition, to party leadership it is not worth the time to examine and perhaps embrace.
In today’s United States of America, unfortunately, the political opposition is viewed as the enemy — perhaps even the enemy of the state, but certainly not the loyal opposition of bygone years. Voters from the “other” party are often viewed as vile, in their minds, as foreign interference.
If Florida progressed to open primaries, either using the Top Two system or Ranked Choice, the disruption caused by write-in candidates would be severely curtailed if not totally eliminated. As shown in the recent scandals at the state level, write-in candidates can undemocratically close the primary election to more than half the electorate when there are no “opposition candidates.” Ghost candidates siphon votes cast by duped and uninformed voters. The people lose and the party bosses prevail.
They consider they are doing God’s work. Heaven forbid the primary be open to all duly registered voters.
In an open primary scenario, each and every legally elected voter can vote in each election without having had to join a private concern (a political party, good or bad) in order to exercise the right of citizenship to vote.
I have no opposition to citizens joining any organization that represents their interests. I am opposed to their ability to affect election outcomes by precluding some potential voters from casting a ballot, especially in primaries. This is voter suppression, and at the time when it has its greatest impact.
Private political parties should not be preempting the state government’s high-quality election apparatus that in recent elections, especially in 2020, were exemplary in the prevention of massive fraud by rank-and-file voters.
In our democratic republic, political operatives need to better understand the desires of the voting American citizen and present ideas, programs and candidates that will follow the expressed will of the people rather than to thwart the majority and kowtow to the minority of political thought.
Clearly the majority of citizens do not want a return to the 1950s, and we absolutely want this awesome country to continue unabated to a future that brings evolutionary progress.
When the people have no vision, they perish. When the people lack progress, they perish. When democracy fails, the people perish. Florida, open our primaries now.