re: #137 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Now I recall that there were a lot of “Independents” who got upset that they could not vote for Bernie in closed-primary states as well…

One of the village board members here was complaining (she claims she is a “no labels” person and is registered as independent, though she leans toward liberal issues) she could only get the “independent” primary ballot, which only has a few choices.

Nebraska is an open-primary state. If you wish to vote in a different primary than the party you are registered with, all you have to do is turn in your unmarked ballot and ask for another.

We had a discussion over that. I do not favour open primaries. Parties are essentially associations protected by the I Amendment.

I offered her an example: Suppose we had a rose club in town, and a chrysanthemum club. There are also other flower-growers who grow other flowers and aren’t members of either club.

Why should any of those people be able to select candidates for the boards of the two flower clubs if they are not members?

That analogy seemed lost on her, though our Republican village attorney thought it was a good analogy. (I don’t think I should be picking Republican candidates, he doesn’t think he should be picking Democratic ones.)