Edit: Requiem For Open Primary

Call it human nature, but you never know what you had until it’s gone. So today, we mourn something that formally vanished from the Idaho political landscape Tuesday — for this year, and perhaps for good. A primary election that actually worked for voters. In its place is a “closed” party primary that brushes aside a basic tenet of representative government: the idea that people should be encouraged to vote, not dissuaded and disenfranchised. By now, if you voted Tuesday, you’re well aware of the drill. Before you could fill out a ballot, and around the time you were asked to produce a picture ID, you were asked, perhaps by someone you’d never met, to disclose your political affiliation. Then, you had to request a party ballot — which, like your partisan leanings, is now a matter of public record. Which is no big problem, if you’re a political partisan and you’re not afraid to flaunt it. But this isn’t for everybody — especially not in a state where many voters covet their independence/ Kevin Richert , Idaho Statesman. More here.

Thoughts?