Primaries need to stay open just to party members

The concept of open primaries is a bad idea.

A recent proposal in our state Legislature would allow registered Independents to vote in Primary elections by choosing either the Democratic or Republican ballot.

Why should Independents, who frequently despise political parties, get a say in choosing the candidates of a party that they don’t support? We wouldn’t allow nonmembers to vote in a private organization or a church. This is no different.

Furthermore, if independent voters want to participatein either party’s primary, all they have to do is change their registration to that party. It’s a very easy process that can be done either online, by mail or in person. And you can change your registration asoften as you like.

Why should we make another major change to our voting procedures like we did with Act 77 in 2019, which brought us the chaos of mailin ballots and lots of opportunities for voter fraud and other unintended consequences?

As a loyal member of my party who works to support our candidates by canvassing, working at the polls on election day, and generously donating to candidates and the party, I am disappointed that my party’s leaders would consider giving nonmembers a vote in choosing the candidates to represent our party. That’s a real slap in the face!

It’s time for our leaders and all of us to start thinking logically instead of emotionally to solve the many problems before us. Feel-good ideas like this will not solve any problems and will only make matters worse.

DAVE MAJERNIK

Plum