Currently, Wyoming has closed primaries, but on primary day, any voter is free to switch party membership. This effectively gives Wyoming an open primary. State Senator Bo Biteman (R-Ranchester) has introduced SF 32. It prevents voters from switching parties during the 70 days before any primary. It has five Senate co-sponsors and six House co-sponsors, all Republicans. See this story.
Out of 90 total seats in the Wyoming legislature there are 81 Republicans. Do they even let the 9 Democrats on the floor?
See 2019 Hawaii Senate —
24 Donkeys — ONE invisable Elephant.
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PR and AppV
Hawaii and Wyoming should adopt Top 2.
NO primaries — to torture voters.
ALL regimes should adopt PR.
Before 1888 the individual voter controlled who they could nominate and vote for on their ballots. Ballots were private property of the individual and free for him to publish his choices to the government in an election. There were NO laws restricting who the voter could name on his own ballot for any government office.
Then came the so-called secret ballot reform which had very little to do with the actual ability of the voter to publish his ballot anonymously. Instead he had to do with each state seizing a monopoly of the production of ballots and limiting whose names could appear on the ballot and who the voter must chose among or between; that is censorship and the core of ballot access laws. Some states completely banned the voter from writing-in their choices. Oklahoma is one of nine states that still ban writing-in voting. Other states simply refuse to count write-in votes. Some still count write-in votes but don’t report them as they do votes for “recognized” candidates.
I propose to return control and ownership of the content of the ballot to each individual voter and deny Democratic and Republican partisans to dictate by state law who can and cannot receive votes.
As a matter of constitutional doctrine I contend that the U S Congress and only the U S Congress has jurisdiction over the time, place and manner of holding elections and the states have no constitutional power to confiscate, monopolize and censor the ballot rendering the voter in effective.
BTW, neither does the U S Congress have the constitutional authority to confiscate, monopolize and censor ballots in violation of other provisions of the Constitution like, most obviously, the First Amendment.
Therefore, the states have no monopoly power over the ballots of political parties that may choose to selected candidates by election prior to the the general public election day.
The SECRET ballot happened due to TYRANT boss gangsters recording who voted for what —
ie PURGE of *bad* voters [loss of jobs / threats / attacks] and BRIBES for *good* voters.
Too many political history MORONS to count.
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No write-ins = subversion of 14-2.
Too many really stupid lawyers and SCOTUS hacks to count.
@DFR,
Oklahoma did not exist in 1888. The Sooners were those who would sneak in before the polls opened, and stuff the ballot box. But that didn’t happen until 1889. See Oklahoma Ballot Rush.
If I own my ballot, why can’t I own five ballots, or 100, or 1000? Why am I not at liberty to receive the gift of a ballot, along with a free lunch. Perhaps a boiled egg, a chunk of bread, and a glass of beer.
It is a federal mandate that federal elections use paper ballots. Before 1872, some states held viva voce elections. When Congress was regulating the manner of election for Senators, representatives from New England wanted secret ballots, so that legislators would not be accountable. Representatives from the midlands were appalled. They wondered why the legislators could not stand up and voice their preference for senator like men, just as they did whenthey voted for governor.
Until the process of making paper from wood pulp was perfected in the mid-19th century, paper was relatively expensive. If you made a $1 a day, would you spend a quarter on a quire of paper (25 sheets). If you were working minimum wage, $60/day, would you buy 25 sheets for 60 cents? You would probably demand a higher minimum wage, once the price went up to a $1.
And how would you write on your paper? Your laser printer? Pencils with graphite leads came into use around the same time after discovery of purer forms of graphite. Cheaper paper and pencils led to the demise of clerks as a skilled profession. Paper is the traditional gift for a first wedding anniversary? “You used our anniversary stationery to vote for Donald Trump?! I want a divorce!”
A sheet of paper would be used over and over, not on some wasted vote. Of course, you would accept a party ballot. You could use one to vote, perhaps doing a bit of editing. The other might be used to insulate your walls or fill a void in an old mattress, or maybe bleached and used as scratch paper.
Instead of a filing fee, candidates/parties would pay for party ballots. A candidate might pay to be placed on the party ballot. The same thing still happens on party slate cards for primaries. If a newspaper had sample ballots, a candidate might find buying an advertisement would ensure that he was included on the ballot and any other news coverage.
No ad: “There are no other candidates of seriousness or substance.”
Buy an ad: “Robinson is an earnest candidate representing the Libertarian Party, a new party with interesting ideas. He deserves serious consideration.”
Parties would try to disrupt distribution of ballots by other parties. Maybe they would beat someone up and throw their ballot papers in the ditch. Ballot stuffing is folding several ballots together and placing them in a ballot box. The reason that sample ballots are a different size and color from a legal ballot is so they can’t be stuffed in a ballot box.
There is nothing intrinsic to government-printed ballots that means that there have to be severe ballot access barriers. The political parties controlled the legislators who passed the ballot access laws. The Republican and Democratic parties got the government to print their ballots. Rather than keeping the Libertarian Party from distributing private ballots, the laws make it difficult for them to be included on the government printed ballot.
Minor parties have been duped into working to get party access – like the major parties, and having partisan primaries like the major parties.
The real solution is to make ballots into lists of candidates who have qualified as individuals, rather than a mutation of the old private party ballots.
NO primaries.
Equal nominating petitions or filing fees.
Save some trees — total recycled paper ballots.
@ Jim Riley
What are your objections to overseas voters using the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballot? Would you also object to the use of that ballot by domestic resident voters?
I suggest that voters could download and print a FWAB type ballot or simply use one printed by the state without partisan advertising of parties and candidate names or restrictions on who the voter can or cannot vote for for any office.
Some of your post was amusing sarcasm, but very germane.