
California's rules for independent party voters is another form of suppression - AndrewBissell
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/02/californias-rules-for-independent-party-voters-is-another-form-of-suppression
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mikelward
Primary voting in the US is so different from Australia.

In Australia, only registered financial members of a party can vote in
preselection (the primary). Becoming a voting member requires membership of
exclusively one party, and is subject to party ratification, which can take
months. Which seems potentiallly less democratic.

In California, the ability to register a party preference for free on primary
day seems like a vast improvement. But then you have Republicans voting as
spoilers in the Democratic primary because the Republicans aren't holding one
this year.

Another issue in the US is that most states award no delegates for candidates
who receive less than 15%. That seems like a perfect case for ranked-choice
voting. Australia has had it for 100 years. A first step in that direction
passed in the California state legislature (SB-212) but Gavin Newsom vetoed
it.

As someone who cast my primary vote for somebody who has since withdrawn, I
feel like America could and should do better.

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deathanatos
This … doesn't match my experience. I was a NPP voter in CA; as I remember it,
last year, I just walked in, the tables/lines were well labelled, and I was
either asked which ballot I wanted or I simply pointed to it since they were
laid out on the table. I recall no trouble voting in the Democratic primary.

(Now, that was last year. I've since left CA, as it was too expensive.)

(This release[1] does seem to corroborate what the article says, though.)

[1]: [https://www.sos.ca.gov/administration/news-releases-and-
advi...](https://www.sos.ca.gov/administration/news-releases-and-
advisories/2019-news-releases-and-advisories/secretary-states-office-sends-
statewide-email-npp-voters-presidential-primary-rules/)

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hurricanetc
If you want to vote in the Democratic primary then you should join the
Democratic Party. It isn’t that difficult.

Having a completely open primary is absurd and allows people to game the
primary system.

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bronipstid
A prty that anyone with any views can join isn't a real party, and having two
of them doesn't help.

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pkaye
How do most other states do this? Do they allow voters to pick any candidate
from any party for the primary?

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tssva
There are so many different variations that there is no way most other states
do this.

For a good summary of how different states handle party registration and
primaries checkout [https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-
campaigns/primar...](https://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-
campaigns/primary-types.aspx)

