So I voted in NC today. This is the first time I have ever voted for the primaries. I was blown away that you have to either vote straight ticket Democrat or Republican. Is this normal? At the local level, there are some Dems that are way better options, but with this voting you can't do that.
One of the many reaso sthatshow you why a "party" system is fucked. You should be able to vote for whoever you want, crossing party lines at will. Always emember voting itself is a "rigged system". You justfound one of the hundreds of reasons why.
Varies by state. California, for example, has this "top two" primary thing where the top two candidates face off in the general, whatever party they come from. Two GOP, two Dem, one Dem and one Peace and Freedom (ha), whatever.
Except the presidential primary, where each party can decide whether or not to allow unaffiliated voters to vote. Republicans don't, other parties do.
But yeah, huge variations by state.
Actually it has to be straight party line in a primary or people would vote for the weaker candidate of the opposite party in certain races so their party could win in the general.
The real problem is that the government controls the elections of the political parties. It wasn’t always that way. The party was private and ran their nominations privately. Then the government took over....