Law of unintended consequences (Open primaries)

[HTRN]

The open primaries in NH are one of the big reasons we get shitty candidates for president.

[g-man]

Yeah, there's another Constitutional amendment I could get behind: No campaigning prior to 100 days out from the general election, and all primaries happen simultaneously. Yes, I understand there's 'History' behind NH primaries and Iowa caucuses being out front, but don't care. Same reasoning as the electoral college: prevent undue influence on the federal republic by a non-representative subset of the citizenry.

Just a thought.

[PawPaw]

Louisiana has open primaries for statewide and local races, but closed primaries for the presidential race. This leads to some weird outcomes. For example, registered party only matters once every four years, so many folks don't bother with it. My wife, for example, registered Democrat when she was 18, but has since gotten more conservative. We went to vote in the primary, and they wouldn't let her vote for Trump or Cruz, and escorted her gently to the Dem voting machine. She was forced to chose between Hillary or Bernie, and I think that she threw up a little bit in her mouth.