Regarding the Sept. 20 headline, “Voters say farewell to open primaries”: Yes, I know what the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled, but can’t we in this state of Washington start working now on bringing back the open primary by 2002? It appears that the voters in this state are largely in favor of open-primary voting. Must the will of the people be ignored?
This past primary is an excellent example of what is so wrong with closed primaries. Many voters were very concerned with the Cantwell-Senn race for U.S. Senate challenger, and the Carlson-Hochstatter race for the gubernatorial challenger. One contest was Democratic, the other Republican. One could vote for the individual of choice; if it had been a closed primary, a choice of one or the other races would have been required. I do not think the writers of our Constitution had any intent of denying future voters the right to vote for their individual choice, rather than exclusively for candidates affiliated with any given political party. I do believe our current U.S. Supreme Court might upon re-examination concur – at least that would be my hope.
Marysville
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