The reason so many states went to open primaries is because the “independent” voter was locked out of the primaries since in many states closed primaries are for the party you belong to....
There’s no reason an “independent” should vote in a party’s primary. If they can’t even pick a party, why should they be able to pick it’s candidate?
Why should a party’s candidate be decided by voters who are either uncommitted, in the case of independents, or actually in opposition, in the case of Dems voting in GOP open primaries?
Open primaries are idiotic and have done nothing but provide room for fraud and manipulation and have given us endless numbers of bad candidates and worse office holders.
The reason so many states went to open primaries is because the independent voter was locked out of the primaries since in many states closed primaries are for the party you belong to....
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Your point doesn’t apply in States like Texas that don’t require voters to be registered for a specific party.