The Democratic Party in Calif encourages those who don't wish to identify as Democrats to vote in

[still_one]

the Democratic primary

In California those who are registered to vote as "no party preference" are allowed to request a primary election ballot with presidential candidates from one of the following parties:

The Democratic Party
The American Independent Party
The Libertarian Party

If you want to vote for republican, green, or peace and freedom presidential candidates YOU MUST re-register with that specific party

In other words, in California it is up to the political party to decide whether they want NPP registered voters to vote for their presidential candidate

That means a republican can re-register as NPP, (no party preference), request a Democratic ballot, and vote for who they think is the weakest candidate to go against the republican.

In fact, this election is the ideal election for them to do that since, it is almost a given that trump will be the republican nominee.

For those that push Open Primaries, I would like to remind them that the extreme right wing Democrat Dan Lipinski in Illinois won against the progressive Newman, because republicans crossed over to vote for Lipinski

From my perspective it is self-destructive for the Democratic party to encourage those who do NOT want to be identified as Democrats to determine who the Democratic nominee is

[BannonsLiver]

1. More people who just don't seem to get it.

Honestly there are a lot of days where I wonder if we have the mentality needed to combat the GOP effectively. Most days I am in doubt.

[still_one]

2. I agree

[pazzyanne]

5. Sadly, I also doubt that we have the necessary skills to save our nation.

We can only keep on and hope for the best outcome. I thank God every day for our Democratic leaders. I pray that the American people can do what must be done.

[The Valley Below]

3. This CA Democrat thinks open primaries are a big mistake.

[still_one]

4. Same here. I think it is important for people to understand that in California the Democratic Party

allows non-Democrats to vote in the Democratic primary if they choose to, and I think that is not a good thing

[UniteFightBack]

22. Of course not ...we are gonna get played....again. nt

[msongs]

6. dems do not want to pay to run a closed primary. nt

[still_one]

7. That is NOT the reason.

[floppyboo]

8. Do you have a link for this?

It is being aired about on indie sites that this is dis-information. And from the below link, I believe it is true, and that you have been scammed!
The American Independent Party is a neo-right wing party. http://aipca.org/

The only people allowed to vote, aside from registered Democrats are No Party Preference.

[floppyboo]

9. Oh - I think I misinterpretted your alarm

Are you saying that 'no party preference' voters should not be allowed to vote because they could just as likely be trolls who are right-wingers?
Do people really go to those lengths to be dicks?

[still_one]

11. California bends over backwards to give people the opportunity to easily register to vote. and yes,

a right-winger, or anyone for that matter could register as NPP, and then request a ballot for one of the political parties that allow a NPP registered voter to vote in their primary if they request it.

My point is not only would right wingers do it, but ANYONE who doesn't want to be a Democrat.

Why should someone who doesn't want to be identified as a Democrat be allowed to vote in our primary?

[floppyboo]

14. I'm thinking I agree with you.

I mean, even if you have been NPP, but really want to vote for a Dem, you should register as a Dem. I'm not sure I understand why you wouldn't. sI mean, I get it that you might change to NPP after an election, if you want to protest or keep options open, but before?

[still_one]

15. Regardless floppy, it isn't going to change here in California. That was voted in through a

proposition

[floppyboo]

19. Are the jungle primaries everywhere too? Meh. Crazy avocado eaters :)

[still_one]

20. Lol. Up to the state

[still_one]

10. Gee, I guess my California voter information guide got spammed. (sarcasm). This is directly from

My California information guide

However, if you go to the California Secretary of State you will find the same information.

Here, I will do it for you:

https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/political-parties/no-party-preference/

It has only been in place for over two decades.

If someone is calling this out as disinformation, they are the one's pushing the DISINFORMATION

[Voltaire2]

12. Seeing as how the Democratic Party

has pretty much run the table in CA, I’ll trust that they know what they are doing.

[still_one]

13. Really? Maybe a closer look at some of the Governors we have had would be instructive, with

Schwarzenegger being the most recent example of how that bit us.

I don't know if you are from California or not, but we had something like over 35 Senate candidates in the last election.

It is a ticking time bomb

Also, the logic that because someone is in a certain position they must know what they are doing, does NOT always follow

[Voltaire2]

21. Past tense.

[thesquanderer]

16. re:"a republican can...request a Dem ballot and vote for who they think is the weakest candidate"

True. OTOH, a Republican who doesn't particularly like Trump (and there are many of them!) can also request a Dem ballot in order go vote for the Dem who they would be happiest to see in the White House instead of Trump.

The number of Republicans and Independents who are willing to consider voting for a Dem in November is bigger than the number of Republicans and Independents who will never vote for anyone but Trump. Therefore, allowing them to vote in the primary arguably gives us an opportunity to help put up the candidate most likely to beat Trump.

I suspect that the California Democratic Party has looked at the numbers, and figured this out, i.e. that it would be better for the Dems to let them vote than to not let them vote.

[David__77]

17. The California Democratic Party didn't want to exclude decline to state voters.

The Republican Party does exclude them in California.

Here’s a good recent article on this issue: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-01-24/california-independent-voters-presidential-primary

[R B Garr]

18. Thanks for this excellent reminder. I couldn't believe some posts earlier that dismissed

this very real playground for those who want to screw with our primaries. This is old, old news.

I think there was even a lawsuit from a candidate's supporters a couple years ago because they wanted to vote for someone as "Independent" status, (something like that) and they missed deadlines. They sued California to give them more time, or some such ridiculousness.

Great reminder about Dan Lipinski. With such an evenly split electorate, of course this is going to be a procedure they can exploit to eliminate the strongest opponent.