Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster does not support calls from within his party to close primary elections to registered party members only. He has long pushed back against claims that non-party members will infiltrate the primaries to manipulate outcomes.
Independent Voters
The South Carolina Republican presidential primary is scheduled for Saturday, February 24. It's an open primary, meaning any registered state voter can participate as long as they did not vote in the February 3 Democratic presidential primary.
As the US kicks off the 2024 presidential election cycle, more than 23.5 million registered independent voters find themselves sidelined by closed presidential primaries in 22 states, a recent report from the Unite America Institute reveals.
1. You See the Legitimacy of Opposing Views
Voters have become accustomed to the simple red-versus-blue, liberal-versus-conservative goal posts that have been set up by the drivers of American politics. Hyper-polarization has reached such extremes that no matter the position, the "other side" is always wrong, evil, and brainwashed.
As critical thinking skills become increasingly important in the era of artificial intelligence, our two-party political system is imperiling both democracy and the American workforce by automating voter choice, decreasing the value of human input and serving as a Chat GPT for everyday political conversations.
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Independent voters are sending a message to the Republican and Democratic Parties: We are done playing your games.
Democratic US Presidential candidate and US Representative Dean Phillips (Minnesota) condemned the systemic threats to US elections at every level of the process in a recent conversation with Open Primaries President John Opdycke.
Just one week ago, the entire country took notice when Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said he wanted to dismantle the state's nonpartisan "jungle primary." In the midst of a special session, the Legislature swiftly moved a bill through both of its chambers that did not give the governor everything he wanted, but still disenfranchises over 800,000 non-major party voters in critical elections.