open primaries
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Ohio has open partisan primaries that do not require party affiliation as a condition for participation. However, a new bill in the Ohio House of Representatives would change the rules so that the right to vote was conditioned on joining the Republican or Democratic Party.
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The last couple of years have seen an increase in states looking to change their primary election laws. In some cases, party leaders are trying to increase their power over electoral outcomes, while nonpartisan reformers attempt to offer other states better elections.
Eight years ago, there was a competition still in play between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton when the California primary rolled around. But, even though the Democratic Party allowed independent votes to be counted toward the selection of convention delegates, then Secretary of State Alex Padilla refused to eliminate the arcane and undemocratic barriers to voting left over from partisan primary rules more than half a century old.