SENATE BILL: Primary System Introduction Act (Law'd)

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

TJ already sponsored this, I believe.

Anyhow, I propose these three amendments:

Section 2 is amended to read:
Primaries may be either closed (open only to members of the respective party) or open (open to members of other parties, unaffiliated voters, or both) at the discretion of the parties, the means of which must be held in accordance to the voting system used in the race the candidates are running for.
5. In the event that a registered voter changes parties after voting in a primary and another party's primary is being held for the same race, they are prohibited from voting in the other primary/s.  Unaffiliated voters are also limited to voting in one primary per race.
6. Primary winners may be determined no less than one week before the general/special election/s.

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

Hey, what about open primaries?

You mean, like, Louisiana-style jungle primaries?  That's the system we have already, except better, because it's instant rather than time-delayed.

No.
If some party decided to have a presidential primary, everybody despite affilation can vote in it.

That's been amended to the bill already.

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

Could anyone please tell me why it is a good idea to reduce the competitiveness of elections even further?  I had to go back to December to find an election that was at all remotely competitive on an intra-party level, and there were 6 candidates there for 5 open slots.  Any reduction in the number of candidates would've made the election entirely non-competitive.

Actually, wait, no, I have a better objection than that, even.  (Bear with me... this isn't just an "ilikeverin being grumpy" objection, I promise! *hughughug* )  I can see this proposal, as currently proposed, doing what it's designed to do for the regional Senate races.  But, as currently stated, it seems to limit parties to endorsing a single candidate for all races, which is completely nonsensical for the at-large Senate races, where 5 seats are being competed for all at once.  You could limit it to 5 for those, I suppose, but what party would run 6+ candidates?!  At the very least, the bill should be amended to make it up to the parties themselves how many candidates they can nominate.

Um, this bill only affects single-position races.  It states that right in the first section.  Primaries would not be held for at-large Senate races or any other race that elects multiple people at a time based on preferential votes.

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

This is a terrible bill, we already have IRV which encompasses the best parts of all voting systems. The only alternative that should be considered is creating a Parliament with country-wide proportional representation since we have several major parties. That way we can have coalitions form, which could be more fun than the current system.

We'll still have IRV.  This bill doesn't affect much other than the way candidates appear on the ballots.  Basically, primary wins would just be the same thing as formal endorsements from the party.

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

I personally like what we have already.

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

Yes.

[Mad Deadly Worldwide Communist Gangster Computer God]

Aye.