Primaries.

I voted. I think it's a very important thing to do- even more so because I am part or a voting block that is more of a non-voting block. At the same time, I had a hard time motivating anyone else to vote yesterday in our state's primary and I'm trying to figure out why.

First off, many people I talked to (outside of my political science classes) really had no idea it was voting day, much less what a primary was. But don't jump to criticize who my friends are before you examine this primary more in depth.

To try and support the idea of primaries, I threw out things like: "It gets at pickin the best canidate that will run in November... for certain offices like Governor and District Attorney." Another thing was that most of the people who I was encouraging to vote were in the very building that the could a) register them to vote on that day and b) vote in less than 15 minutes. Needless to say, it was still a hard sell.

But even informed citizens don't necessarily like primaries. Generally, anyone who is middle of the line, moderate, unsure, not that enthused, or really anything but a dedicated and informed voting citizen tends to not show up to the primaries like voters on the further ends of the spectrum. This leads to "moderate casualties" in some cases (1).

There are issues outside of voter ignorance that deters primary voters as well. Voting for a party could also add to the deterance.

I understand that parties as a whole don't like the idea of going head to head with two members of the same party, but I think it's important to look at how canidates could or should be picked if primaries were none. It seems there would be quite a lot of under-the-table canidates on the ballots. Maybe that is already a problem, but there would be individuals given no chance from the get-go.

Is a primary vote too much for the American public to handle? If so, is the lack of interest or desire to vote in the primaries enough to reform the voting system? To me, it's shameful that the numbers are so low that reform of the system is really a formidable option. But I guess the low voting percentages are a reality that the United States system has to face. I think US citizens should not focus on what their bumper magnet says as much as their country's voter turnout.

1. http://newshound.de.siu.edu/online/stories/storyReader$2625