Derek, I have great respect for Army Master Sergeant's, but your argument doesn't deal properly with why we have political parties and why they go through a nomination process. A wide open primary can result in some strange and unrepresentative results as has happened in California to Democrats. In NH, Republicans often complain that their primaries get impacted by voters that do not support Republicans in the general elections
The one alternative that deals with the issues you have raised and still reflects an accurate representation of the electorate is the Alaskan top 4 candidates run-off with ranked choice voting. If you are not familiar with it you should study it. In Oregon we are moving to ranked-choice voting in some elections so the public will become aware of how it works (or doesn't) in the next few years.
Derek, I have great respect for Army Master Sergeant's, but your argument doesn't deal properly with why we have political parties and why they go through a nomination process. A wide open primary can result in some strange and unrepresentative results as has happened in California to Democrats. In NH, Republicans often complain that their primaries get impacted by voters that do not support Republicans in the general elections
The one alternative that deals with the issues you have raised and still reflects an accurate representation of the electorate is the Alaskan top 4 candidates run-off with ranked choice voting. If you are not familiar with it you should study it. In Oregon we are moving to ranked-choice voting in some elections so the public will become aware of how it works (or doesn't) in the next few years.
John Calhoun, U.S. Army artillery '68-'70