Matthew Shugart e-mailed earlier today to point me to this Pollster.com post, which led me another post at The Learning Curve, both of which describe the rules for Ohio’s primary, which is, for all practical purposes, open, insofar as even if one arrives at the polls as a registrant for a specific party–by virtue of how one voted in the previous primary–one can switch. Further, if one didn’t vote in the previous primary one is considered “non-partisan” and can choose which party’s primary in which to vote.
All quite interesting.
There are a couple of practical issues here. One is mentioned in the Pollster.com post, which is that this process has made theColumbus Dispatch‘s poll suspect (see the post for details). Second, if there is a large turnout and a lot of switching, it will mean slowdowns in the lines and possibly errors as ill-trained poll workers attempt to deal with the rules. It also occurs to me that it could (and God help us here) lead to some threats of legal challenges, given the litigious nature of campaigns these days.
March 4th, 2024 at 1:57 pm
Open (as you say in the post) or semi-open (as you say in the headline)?
I think “open” is correct, given that a voter in Ohio can change his or her party affiliation at the polling place, which is in any case only based on which party primary the voter voted in previously.
California’s, on the other hand, is semi-open: Voters must register in advance to participate in the GOP primary, whereas those registered “Decline to State” may request a Dem ballot on primary day. I believe NH should be called “semi-open” as well, given that if you are registered with a party you may not vote in another party’s primary, but an independent may choose.
(Technically, I believe California law refers to its primary as “modified closed,” just to add to the typological soup.)