Rankin: Eliminate Party Primaries for County Offices in Mississippi

Steve Rankin (Free Citizen), third party advocate and one of the country's leading experts on state party primary structures, responded to columnist Bill Minor in the Jackson Mississippi Clarion Ledger from last week "Maybe Miss. is ready to install open primary system," June 18) with a letter in which Rankin calls for nonpartisan elections at the county level.

Since the Legislature refuses to make this change, we citizens will have to do it through a ballot initiative. Why do we need party primaries for local offices anyway? [more]

Rankin says more in his post from Feb. on Free Citizen "Greater Choice For Mississippi Voters"

Nonpartisan elections are popularly called "open primaries" in Mississippi. In such an election, there are no party primaries, and all candidates, including independents, run in the same election. If no one gets 50-plus percent in the first round, the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, meet in a runoff.

The Voter Choice Plan would provide greater choice for our state's voters by changing to nonpartisan local (county and municipal) elections.

We need more third party voices like this for open primaries!