I’m writing in response to Kos diary yesterday arguing for closed primaries.
I think many of the people on this site, as I do, believe that voting should be easy. The effort of many states to enact voter ID laws is simply to disenfranchise in the name of stopping voter fraud. There is no reason why people shouldn’t be able to register and vote on election day.
So, why should we make voting in a primary/caucus any more difficult? I believe that someone who shows up at a polling place and registers on the spot should be able to vote, whether its a primary or the general election. If an unregistered voter shows up and registers on the spot, they get to choose which party they want to join and thus which primary ballot that they get. We shouldn’t make it harder for people who are already registered to change their party registration, if they so desire and vote in that primary.
Kos uses the example of Nebraska and Kansas, where to register to vote you have to take extra steps to go and show the state your voter ID. This is a ridiculous requirement and we shouldn’t condone it by following it. If someone isn’t registered when they show up at a Democratic primary/caucus, they should be able to register on the spot.
If a state requires extra steps to register, then I would propose a rule whereby if you register on the spot, you get to vote provisionally. In order for your ballot to count, you have to do the extra steps to become fully registered to vote. This would create an incentive for those people to register where they might not have done otherwise.
Kos says “A party’s job is to build the party. It’s a candidate’s job to win non-affiliated voters”. Hogwash. It’s everyone’s job to win elections. The party and the candidates should BOTH be winning over non-affiliated voters as well as building the party. The new voters that Sanders brought into the fold are an asset. We shouldn’t shun them because they are first time voters in states trying to suppress the vote, we should be encouraging them in every way possible. Lets not forget that most Sanders voters ultimately came back into the fold and voted for Hillary.
Voting in a primary/caucus should be just as easy as voting in the general election. Artificial barriers to keep people out are a travesty whether we are talking the general election or a primary.