Hmmm. I can think of numberless reasons to vote in various ways.
In 2004, faced in Virginia with a settled Republican contest and a still running Democratic one, I voted in the Democratic primary for John Edwards, figuring that a Democrat had a very good chance that year and John Edwards was marginally better from my perspective than Kerry, who I really didn’t like. In the general, of course, I voted for the reelection of Bush.
Now, I’m sure you have many issues with my choices, but would you characterize them as dishonest in any way? And keep in mind, we have open primaries here.
I disagree. We’re talking about a strategy that is perfectly legal, and not even immoral. If the Democrats had been foresighted enough to ask their party to vote for McCain in 2000, think of the disaster that would have been averted.
And talking about the principles of democracy is pointless as long as there is an electoral college.
I’m a Republican who voted for Obama. I didn’t have to pretend to be anything. I walked up to the table, they asked me whether I wanted a Republican or Democrat ballot, and I signed in and voted.
I know that talk radio has put forth this idea of Republicans voting for Clinton to provide McCain with a more beatable opponent, but I haven’t run into anyone without a microphone who thought it was a good idea. And based on Marley23’s cite, it looks like the Rs who voted Democrat were pretty evenly divided, like everything else in Ohio politics.
Open primaries should not be allowed, if the Republicans want to vote in any Democratic primary and visa versa they should have the balls to change their party affiliation on their voter ID before hand, like my dear sweet mother did. After being a registered Independent who usually voted Democrat for a long time (but could never vote in primaries), she changed her affiliation to Republican to vote against Jeb Bush in primaries for Governor. Alas it did not work but at least she tried and committed herself to the effort.
In Ohio, there is no party affiliation on the voter card. Because I voted a Democrat ballot in this primary, I am now on record as being “affiliated” with the Democrat party. This process didn’t appear to require any balls at all. The Ohio Secretary of State’s website says:
ETA:There is no affiliation on my Ross County voter’s card.
I would never do that. If what she had to do to change registration was anything like what I had to do when I lived in Maryland, it took more effort, if not balls, than what I did here in Ohio. In Maryland, I had to mail in a form or visit an election board office well before the election. In Ohio, I merely stated my ballot preference at the polling place.
I completely fail to see the problem with stragic (often called insincere) voting. You vote to express your preference over an outcome. Sometimes you vote to express your preference over a favorite, other times you vote to avoid a most dispreferred outcome by voting for a less dispreferred one.
Changing the rules to correct one perceived unfairness will create another. If you further limit the number of people who can vote in primaries, you run the risk of creating a “mandate” out of very few peoples’ actual preferences. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is decided at the state level, perhaps as it should be.
Its the same problem as having Mexico vote for US president. This is a party nomination. People outside the party shouldn’t get a say. Seems like a pretty simple argument. In my estimation, the harder question is how to account for Republicans who would genuinely vote for some Democrat if that Democrat won the nomination but want to remain Republicans–that, I suspect, is the basis for a lot of the open primaries.
Parties are pretty loose arrangements. Some states have no barriers to entry, others have various paperwork hurdles. It’s not like citizenship. The second part of your post highlights where the Ohio rules work for me. I voted for Obama in the primary because I would like to vote for him in the general election. At the local level, I still consider myself a Republican, and I will probably ask for a Republican ballot at the next primary.
Sorry, but hedging your bet is not one of the rights guaranteed by democracy.
You can’t vote for Nader and then add a proviso that if he loses your vote goes to the Democratic candidate. Similarly, you can’t vote for a Republican but use the primary to ensure that if he loses “the Democrat you like” wins.
True enough, but if Clinton’s campaign manages to seat MI and FL delegates for her, his lead gets clipped by 150 delegates and bob’s yer uncle, no more Barack.
And if the Michigan and Florida delegates are seated according to the original results, McCain will beat Clinton in November easily, because those primaries were loads of shit and everybody knows it. It is beyond absurd to say “Okay, you can vote, but it doesn’t count. Wait, now it does, never mind!” You cannot have a race with only one contestant and have that outcome apply to the larger setting.
True, but if we switched to an instant-runoff system, you could vote for Nader first and then if he didn’t make the viability threshold have your vote go to the Democrat.
What rights ARE guaranteed by Democracy? There are a number of election systems that are democratic (eg Instant runoff voting) that specifically allow you to “hedge your bet” and they are generally considered more democratic than a first past the post type that some think is the gold standard.
From my recent understanding, the idea behind open State primaries has to do with making it more democratic. Because you only have two parties in the States, it’s a little silly to say it’s “just a party nomination” - It is consistently selecting 1 of the 2 candidates for president. Shouldn’t EVERYONE get a say in which 2 are put to the final round?
I’m not convinced that Obama’s race will be a big issue in Ohio. The last Ohio Secretary of State was a black man (Ken Blackwell), and he lost the 2006 governor’s election not because he was black, but because he was a Republican with strong connections to various idiocies on the part of the old Republican administration. The mayor of the largest city in Ohio is a black man (Michaal Coleman). I’ve not noticed race being mentioned as an issue when he runs for election.
In my view, either Hillary or Obama would win Ohio’s votes over John McCan in November.
If what she had to do to change registration was anything like what I had to do when I lived in Maryland, it took more effort, if not balls, than what I did here in Ohio. In Maryland, I had to mail in a form or visit an election board office well before the election. In Ohio, I merely stated my ballot preference at the polling place.