Last Tuesday, June 2, voters in New Jersey, Iowa, South Dakota, Montana, New Mexico, and California showed up to the polls to vote in primaries. Well, voters who were allowed to do so, with several of those states closing independents out of the process.
All the attention is on Graham Platner's scandals, but something is happening in Maine that is unheard of in the rest of the country, and it is because of the state's use of ranked choice voting. Not all candidates are at each other's throats.
Leading up to the primary, party operatives used the scare tactic of a “Democrat lockout,” but not only did California voters prove this wrong, but they also revealed why nonpartisan open primaries work—voters make the decisions.
Veterans carry a credibility that no party label can manufacture, and at a moment when nearly every institution has shed public trust, it is the one identity that still commands broad, cross-partisan respect.
Cumulative voting is another alternative to winner-take-all elections that has far more American uses today and is the one such alternative with a history in state legislative elections.
California voters did exactly what voters tend to do: they evaluated the candidates, coalesced around viable contenders, and produced a result broadly reflective of the state's electorate.
Spencer Pratt's campaign took off in LA, not because of his political leanings. It took off because he channeled voters' broad frustrations with City Hall and the partisan leadership that controls it.
Matt Shinners
Cara Brown McCormick
Shawn Griffiths
Susan von Seggern
Jeremy Gruber
Rob Richie
Open Primaries
