Independents throughout Ohio who intend on pledging their allegiance to one of the remaining four candidates of the Democratic Party must first alter their party affiliation before casting a ballot in the Ohio Primary.
The Ohio voting tactic relies heavily on a closed primary to further clarify the partisanship of each citizen. Paul Beck, a professor of political science at Ohio State, said a glitch in the system indicates any person aligned to the Independent party, or who is unregistered, can still participate in the primary after changing their preferred party affiliation to Democrat.
“Ohio is technically closed because you have to be a party member, but they can change parties on election day,” said Beck. “So I tend to call it a semi-closed primary since it is so easy to move side to side.”
Although Ohio is traditionally recognized as a competitive party state favoring Republicans, statistics have shown a potential downfall to the Republicans could prevail if 66.4 percent of the estimated independents choose to register and vote as a Democrat.
With nearly 7 million registered voters in the last Ohio primary, only 34.9 percent chose to pursue their electoral duty. Matthew Damschroder, director of the Board of Elections, said although Ohio carries a closed primary, more citizens could possibly vote in the primary if they are given the option to change affiliation.
“Part of the perspective of giving people the option to register to a party at a primary is allowing that person to have a voice towards the general election,” said Damschroder.
The state of Wisconsin also holds presidential primaries but allows all citizens from different parties to participate in the election. Beck said Wisconsin’s open primary system is designed against a solidified declaration of party affiliation.
“Some Americans have a distaste for parties and think parties are evil and manipulative,” said Beck. ” Since anyone can participate in Wisconsin’s primary, the parities have become very weak as a result – it’s an anti-party reform.”
Some states remain faithful to the closed primary system to ensure no individual would attempt to deteriorate the image of other parties by registering dishonestly.
“It is possible that a person could register as a member of the other party in order to vote for the candidate that would not fair well against their own party’s presidential hopeful,” said Beck.
