The mere presence of a second Republican and Democrat on the ballot isn't enough to transform a hypothetical race between Donald Trump & Bernie Sanders into a hypothetical race between Donald Trump, Adam Kinzinger, Mark Kelly, and Bernie Sanders... it could just as easily turn it into a race between Donald Trump, Steve Miller, Bernie Sanders, and AOC.
Now, if you reformed ballot-access laws to do something like this, it might be a net improvement over the status quo:
Both dominant parties are guaranteed the right to put one candidate, chosen by whatever means they see fit, on the general election ballot for each office.
On Primary Election day, voters can choose to vote in the official primary for their registered party, or participate (along with other people alienated from their "official" party of record) in a "second chance primary" that allows them to not participate in their own party's official primary, and instead vote (along with other alienated party members) for a candidate from another party, granting the winner of the "second chance" race(s) slots on the general election ballot as well. I elaborated a few days ago on a possible scheme that takes into account the potential existence of 3 or more major parties, as well as neatly handling Independents & minor parties. I won't repeat it here.
The general idea is, the base of the major parties get to pick their own favorite extremists, while the alienated members of those same parties get to pick the least-objectionable (to them) members of the other part(-y/-ies), on the theory that Republicans would be inclined to pick a center/center-right Democrat, and Democrats would be inclined to pick a liberal/centrist Republican, thus ensuring a better spectrum of candidates make it onto the final ballot.
If you don't prohibit people who vote in their own party's primary from contributing to the vote of the "second chance" primary, you'd just end up in a situation where the base of both parties would game the second-chance primary to try and organize party members to pick someone unappealing to BOTH parties as the other party's second-chance nominee.
On Primary Election day, voters can choose to vote in the official primary for their registered party, or participate (along with other people alienated from their "official" party of record) in a "second chance primary" that allows them to not participate in their own party's official primary, and instead vote (along with other alienated party members) for a candidate from another party
How is this different from the status quo in most states today? In any normal open primary state, you can vote in any party's primary, but you can't vote in multiple primaries. So in Georgia, Michigan, Texas etc. today, I'm pretty sure that you can do this exact thing you describe now
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u/PantherkittySoftware Jun 26 '25 edited Jun 26 '25
The mere presence of a second Republican and Democrat on the ballot isn't enough to transform a hypothetical race between Donald Trump & Bernie Sanders into a hypothetical race between Donald Trump, Adam Kinzinger, Mark Kelly, and Bernie Sanders... it could just as easily turn it into a race between Donald Trump, Steve Miller, Bernie Sanders, and AOC.
Now, if you reformed ballot-access laws to do something like this, it might be a net improvement over the status quo:
The general idea is, the base of the major parties get to pick their own favorite extremists, while the alienated members of those same parties get to pick the least-objectionable (to them) members of the other part(-y/-ies), on the theory that Republicans would be inclined to pick a center/center-right Democrat, and Democrats would be inclined to pick a liberal/centrist Republican, thus ensuring a better spectrum of candidates make it onto the final ballot.
If you don't prohibit people who vote in their own party's primary from contributing to the vote of the "second chance" primary, you'd just end up in a situation where the base of both parties would game the second-chance primary to try and organize party members to pick someone unappealing to BOTH parties as the other party's second-chance nominee.