When Donald Trump's own family couldn't vote in New York's closed primary because they didn't switch parties in time, it made national headlines. New York has some of the strangest rules on switching political parties, mandating that a person must switch affiliation by October of the preceding year.

Let’s suppose there is this man in America. He is wealthy. He considers himself a “conservative guy” but he is not ideological. At one time or another in his past he has said he is in favor of a higher minimum wage, higher taxes on wealthier people, and even universal health care.

Yet, he cannot bring himself to self-identify as a Democrat. Given the alternatives available, he sees himself as a Republican.

Jane Sanders, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, called the closed primary system in New York “silly” on MSNBC's Morning Joe. During the interview, she advocated for open primaries and same-day registration.

For two decades, the Commission on Presidential Debates has excluded every candidate from the general election presidential and vice-presidential debates but two: the nominees of the Republican and Democratic Parties. They do so by using a rule excluding every candidate who fails to poll at at least 15% support in five polls chosen by them (which often only ask about the two major party nominees). Recently, the group Level the Playing Field joined with the Green and Libertarian Parties to challenge that rule in court.

On a chilly April day, over a hundred protesters gather on the steps of a city hall and repeatedly chant, “Let us vote! Let us vote!” You can hear the passion in the protesters' voices but you can also sense a silent acknowledgement among them that they will not be able to cast their vote in the immediate future.

This may seem like a scene from the pre-Civil Rights era or a 1920s suffragette rally but, amazingly, it is not. I watched this happen on Thursday in New York.

The political commentator Michael Kinsley once quipped that in Washington, "the scandal isn't what's illegal, the scandal is what's legal." President Obama echoed this sentiment last week during his comments on the Panama Papers – the 11.5 million leaked files released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) that have disclosed how the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca set up shell companies to help we

So far this Democratic campaign, the debates have been a real snooze-fest, but not last night's brawl in Brooklyn.

Both candidates came for a fight, both candidate were well versed in their issues, and both scored their points and both took and landed a few jabs.

This is good for the Democratic Party. Whoever wins the nomination is going to face a tough, vicious opponent, and they need to toughen up their debating skills to get ready for the general election.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf, a long time advocate of medical marijuana, will sign SB 3 this weekend. SB 3 will usher in Pennsylvania's medical marijuana program.

What a waste. Not only is our 70,000-page tax code bloated, inefficient, unfair, anti-growth, subject to cyber-attacks, and antiquated; complying with The Beast is an incredibly inefficient use of America’s resources. Just filing the returns requires Americans to spend 1.4 billion hours and costs us over $20 billion. For the average business, it requires twice the cost and effort.

Thus, my number one priority in reforming our tax code will be to dramatically simplify The Beast.

NBC Montana reported Thursday that the Montana Republican Party is dropping out of a lawsuit that aims to close the state's primary elections.