Reply #22: Why do we have primaries at all? Let's have 100 people run and then a runoff for the top two. [View All]

[Orangepeel]

Or, maybe not.

The purpose of primaries/caucuses are for the parties to pick a nominee. Or, more accurately, to figure out how many pledged delegates a candidate gets to send to the convention. As such, there's nothing wrong with restricting the process to people who are/can be/want to be involved with the party.

I don't like open primaries (e.g., where non party members can vote) and I don't like same day registration for a primary/caucus. But, regardless of what I like, each state determines how they want to do it and if they want to choose an open primary or a closed caucus that's their lookout.

The general election should be an open process where any citizen can vote for anybody running by secret ballot. But a candidate running in that election under the "Democratic Party" banner should be chosen by democrats.