Fresh Tracks Weekly - Vote In Your Primary Election

[quarterhorse]

Can you vote in a primary if you aren't registered to a particular party?

In Idaho you can choose unaffiliated. I'm not sure if many names show up on your ballot if you do that.

 

[Robg2]

It was a tongue-in-cheek post pointing out that it is the voters who put the crazies on the ballot. Just look at Congress. I don’t think people switch that much but the conspiracy always comes up. See post 17 question. There are a lot of different systems out there and people should know what they are for their state. The reality is not many people vote in primaries. I’m not sure ranked choice would solve the problem of the crazies because I think a large percentage of voters are equally crazy and not interested in hearing about problems or solutions.

It makes a difference, just look at Murkowski’s win. In practice ranked choice is the same as a runoff election, which is easier to show how the crazies are eliminated.

Say there are three people running in the main election, a crazy left, a crazy right, and a moderate. Furthermore, say the crazy right wins, but she/he has less than 50% of the vote so there is a runoff between the crazy right and the moderate.

The crazy left still gets to vote, but they will generally vote for the moderate more than the crazy left. Thus, a runoff tends to shift the winner towards the center. Same with ranked choice, which an instant runoff.