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!

Conversations on Instant Runoff Voting

There's a great post on The Existentialist Cowboy (from Texas, where else?? and now linked on The Hankster) called Restoring American Democracy: A Proposal which I came by way of Steve Rankin at Free Citizen... supporting different variations of instant runoff voting:

Existentialist Cowboy says:

"A recent Gallup poll indicates more Americans now identify themselves as Democrats than Republicans —a shift that may give Democrats a long term edge...."

Well not so fast! Current polls are showing that 40-43% of the American electorate identify as independent, regardless of party registration, meaning that they choose the candidate they vote for based on issues over party label. The numbers are sometimes surprising: 32% Dem, 31% Repub, 37% independent for local registration...

Lest we forget, it was independent voters who put the issue of the war in Iraq on the national agenda (and I would say that was because of independents' willingness to approach the problem with "fresh eyes" -- not reactive to a long-term partisan strategy to keep the politicians employed...) and it was independents who "swung" Dem to create the change-over in the 2006 elections. This is also indicative of a move to the left by independents.

Existentialist Cowboy continues:

"In the US various methods of "approval voting" are termed an "instant runoff". The term "ranked choice" is also used to denote a Borda count specifically. In the UK, the term AV, or "Alternative Vote" is used. In Canada, the term is "preferential ballot". The time has come for a fundamental change. The question is: will the American people seize perhaps the last opportunity they will have as a nation to bring about a "rebirth of freedom".

We couldn't agree more!!! Thanks for this post, Existentialist Cowboy! We're looking for more on independent voters and the challenges faced by voters who can't abide the partisan divide....

Conversations on Nonpartisan Elections

• See Free Citizan for A Brief History of Nonpartisan Elections by Steve Rankin, and also, U.S. District Court Rules Mississippi Democratic Party May Close its Primary to Members at Y'all Politics
• In Ravenna, Ohio, a charter proposal to hold nonpartisan elections was approved by the City Council 6-1 and now will go to ballot.
• In Ashville, N.C., which has held nonpartisan elections since 1994, but in June, by a 4-3 vote, council switched to partisan elections. A group of citizens Let Asheville Vote, collected 5,000 signatures from registered voters in Asheville to get the question on the ballot.
• In South Kingstown, R.I., which has nonpartisan elections, a top proposal from the public is doing away with the master lever option, which allows voters to cast a straight party vote. Only 20% of the voters in the 2006 general election cast a straight-party vote.

What's New on The Hankster

New on The Hankster: Y'all Politics (look for Steve Rankin)

Little Known Facts: The Party of Lincoln

by Steve Rankin

The Republican Party was founded in the summer of 1854, and it had the largest number of members in the US House that met in 1855, so it was a third party for only a few months. (Of course, with the draconian ballot access laws, that would be impossible for a new party to pull off today.)

Abe was elected in 1860 with 39.9% of the popular vote, thanks largely to the North-South split in the Democratic Party.

Illinois Sen. Stephen Douglas, the nominee of the northern Democrats, actually finished fourth in electoral votes in 1860. Vice President John Breckinridge of Kentucky, the southern Democratic presidential nominee, was second in electoral votes, and Tennessee's John Bell of the Constitutional Union Party was third.

Steve Rankin's blog is Free Citizen (on The Hankster sidebar).

Steve Rankin: The Louisiana Election System and Partisan Primaries

Steve Rankin (who publishes on Y'all Politics) comments:

Louisiana is the only state that has nonpartisan elections for all of its state officials: all candidates run in the same election. The state, which alone has also used that system for its congressional elections, is restoring party primaries for those elections, starting in 2008.

Louisiana's Republicans are allowing only Republicans to vote in GOP congressional primaries. Louisiana Democrats have not yet said whether they will invite independents to vote in Democratic congressional primaries. "... the Legislature allowed the political parties to determine whether they would allow independent voters to participate in the closed party primary." The legislature had no choice, since, in 1986, the U. S. Supreme Court gave parties the right to invite independents to vote in their primaries.

Mississippi Republicans say that they will keep ALL GOP primaries open to ALL voters-- regardless of the outcome of the Democrats' lawsuit. The Democrats, in contrast, have indicated that they will invite independents but block Republicans from voting in Democratic primaries.
Louisiana has had party registration since 1916.

What's New on The Hankster

New on The Hankster! Please check out Free Citizen: "This writer espouses individual liberty, free markets, and limited government." Steve Rankin has an interesting post "An Ancient Gripe From Mississippi Voters" about who can vote in Mississippi primaries.

Welcome, Free Citizen!