The Red Dirt Report here describes the process by which the Oklahoma Libertarian Party is deciding whether to let independents vote in the 2018 Libertarian primary. The final decision will be made on October 7.

Back in 2000, the Oklahoma Libertarian Party was also entitled to its own primary, and that year it voted to let all registered voters vote in its primary. However, the State Board of Elections would not permit the party to invite members of other parties to vote in the Libertarian primary. The party sued, and won in the Tenth Circuit. However, then the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Tenth Circuit, in Clingman v Beaver.

On September 12, Oklahoma held a special election to fill the vacant state house seat, 46th district. Here are the unofficial returns. The only two candidates were a Democrat and a Republican. The Democrat won with 60.41%.

When this seat was last up, in November 2016, there were also just two candidates, a Democrat and a Republican. In that November 2016 election, the Republican won with 60.41% of the vote. It is just a coincidence that the percentage for the winner was the same in both elections. Jacob Rosecrants was the Democratic nominee in both elections. The district is centered on Norman.

Huffington Post has this article by Harry Kresky and Tiani Coleman, urging that the government exert more control over political parties. The analysis simply assumes that the voters are never going to replace either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party with a new major party. The analysis therefore assumes that the only hope for more democratic control over the government is to force those two parties to be more internally democratic.

The article would be better if it mentioned the fact that voters in France this year formed a new party, and then put it into power. Similar events have happened in Canadian provincial elections, and in many Latin American countries. The United States signed the Helsinki Accords, and all the nations that signed pledged that they would not merge any political party with the government.