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People unclear on the concept of primaries
By adamg on Wed, 12/09/2009 - 9:07am
You'd think that having reached the age of 40 in a state like Massachusetts, you'd have figured out how party primaries work. Hyde Park poll worker Mike Ball reports that isn't the case:
... Inspector: You are unenrolled. Which ballot would you like, Democratic, Republican or Libertarian?
Voter: I'm an independent.
Inspector: Yes and you have the choice of any of the three ballots. Would you like, Democratic, Republican or Libertarian?
Voter: (angrily) I don’t have to tell you who I’m voting for!
Inspector: That's true, but you do have to decide for today's primary which party ballot you want.
Voter: (raising voice) No, I'm an independent! ...
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Comments
Yeah, and trapped party people
Another issue yesterday was the occasional Republican voter who wanted a Dem ballot, just for that primary. That's not allowed by law, but there is the option of writing in another party's candidate on your party's ballot. That's a wee pain for the poll workers to note, record and tabulate in several places, but it's right there. All three ballots allowed write-in votes instead of a listed candidate choice. We had a small number of those.
~Mike
Awww
I worked a polling station yesterday and there were a few interesting actions. One was the elderly woman who was registered Republican but so wanted to vote for Capuano. Another was the guy who had to be told twice that he could only vote for one candidate on the ballot.
Options
Did you tell your Republican she could write in Cappy?
Many people don't bother to
Many people don't bother to vote in primaries, and primaries are the only time an independent has to declare. This was probably one of them.
Unenrolled is the way to go
Because I'm unenrolled, I can pick which primary to vote in and then I go right back to unenrolled.
Who can blame someone for
Who can blame someone for being confused by a confusing system? It makes no sense for the public to be staging party primaries in the first place. Political parties are a scourge that perpetuate themselves by this sort of encumbering confusion. We should be crying, not laughing, when someone believes voting for whomever they want should be straightforward--and is wrong.
Thank you! This is the
Thank you! This is the question I have asked myself since learning about political parties in civics class. Why does the government officially recognize political parties in the first place? Primary elections and political parties are nowhere to be found in the constitution.
Political parties are important
Political parties are an inevitable part of any political system (politicians will tend to form coalitions with similar-minded politicians) and because our electoral system has a spoiler effect, there's a tendency for the number of political parties to converge on two (with a few third parties who might be able to rise up in times of political upheaval), and for each political party to pick a particular person to be their official nominee.
When the determining of nominees from each political party is of such importance in determining the ultimate winner, it's only reasonable that the government step in to assure that the primary elections are fair and that everyone has an opportunity to influence them. In the old days, government didn't get involved, and nominees were picked by the bigwigs in the party deciding which to throw their support behind, which is less ideal from a democratic perspective. (Of course, the problem breaks down a bit further when the intersection of national politics and local politics means that one political party dominates the scene, but that makes the need for open primaries all the more important.)
But even if we switched to single transferable vote or range voting or something, (and I think we should) there would still be value in political parties for citizenry as a whole. Politics is not about electing some awesome representative who will be able to change politics through sheer force of will: it requires people to form coalitions within government in order to get anything done. In order for voters to be able to effectively influence government, that means that we need to have a rough idea before the election starts what sort of coalitions they'll form: and having explicit political parties listed on the ballot is a really handy way to do that.
Were they asked to pick a ballot or to declare a party?
To be fair, I was momentarily confused b/c the poll worker asked me to “Declare” a party, which gave the impression that my enrollment would go from U to party-specific. I wonder if others were asked in a similar manner?
I declare
robinite, that was in the WABAC machine, an atavism. You used to have to “declare” in a primary, back when that affiliated you with the party unless you subsequently filled in the card to return to unaffiliated (independent/unenrolled).
That inspector should have asked you to choose a party for that primary ballot. There’s no more declaring.
Likewise, some inspectors at my poll were befuddling voters with imprecision. Some would see the U when it was there turn with the voter list book and say, “You are undecided.” Understandably, the voter would not know what that meant. Eventually, they all realized the real term of “unenrolled” came with less baggage.
I must admit, after giving my
I must admit, after giving my address, I was asked "how will you be voting today?". My first impression was why was I being asked who I was voting for??? so I asked "excuse me?" and was told "you are listed as not enrolled, which party ballot would you like". Much better!
I HAVE voted in a primary before, but it still caught me off guard because of how it was worded.
Why cant they just have one ballot with all the candidates? Would save paper too.
Dirty Party
One ballot with all parties and candidates would encourage people to game the system. Voters who favored one party or brand of politics could goof on the process, loading the returns with the worst, least electable candidates they don't favor. While an unenrolled voter can do that for one party in the primary, they presently limit their damage to one party at a time and effectively throw away their vote on any other parties.
What you suggest happens -- in the general election, when you are down to the finalists and can choose a limited number for office, often one candidate.
Municipal elections
That's why they have preliminaries, rather than primaries.