Yes, Doug Gross is missing something, as is everyone else who doesn’t understand why you must commit to a party in order to vote in that party’s primary (“Party declaration is wrong,” Our Readers’ Views, March 8). It’s because of what a primary is: an election for a political party to determine their candidate in an upcoming election. If you are not affiliated with the party in question, why in the world should you have a say in who they support?
Washington’s so-called (and wrongly named) top-two primary bears much of the responsibility for this confusion. Top-two is a winnowing process that serves only as a popularity contest ensuring that we have the choice only of Republicans or Democrats, either one of each or two of the same. No third-party candidate has a chance, thus continuing the status quo. At least the presidential election will offer a choice of more than two candidates, thus ensuring Mr. Gross and the rest of us really can cast a vote that counts, rather that having to choose the lesser of two evils.
