melanoman

The new primary system California just adopted is stupid. The way it works is that the candidates from all parties are put into one big lump, and only the top two appear on the formal ballot. This is a great way to shut out the minor parties and squelch debate within the major parties. Let's take an example to see how.

Let's imagine that the vote is primarily held by two major parties. To make the math easy, I'm going to split the whole vote 51%/45% between them, with 4% in the minor party.

Let's say that one major party (Purple) has a vigorous debate with 10 candidates. The other is a tightly controlled party (Black) with exactly two candidates. Votes shake out something like this:

Black-A	25%
Black-B	20%
Purple-A	17%
Purple-B	15%
Purple-C	10%
Purple-D	7%
Minor	4%
Purple-E	2%

So the Purple Party has the majority of the vote, but will not appear on the ballot. The party that makes the ballot will be the party that shuts out discussion and selects a champion before the primary even starts.

The purpose of the primary was for the parties to be able to pick their candidates for the main election. This new structure thoroughly undermines that goal, and forces the parties to shut out competition or risk being shut out of the election altogether. This means that the meaningful decisions are made earlier in a campaign.

Money works fast. Grass roots take time. This is a way to shut out the grass roots.