Open Primaries

States in the United States play a crucial role in determining the rules of politics. The Tenth Amendment of the Constitution gives states the powers that are not explicitly given to the federal government. The Tenth Amendment is crucial as the Amendment gives states the power to implement different political institutions and policies that affect the political processes within the state. Thus, political areas, such as direct democracy, open primaries, voter id laws, felony disenfranchisement laws, and election day registration, influenced by the state have led to different political outcomes within each one. Direct democracy plays a large role in a state as direct democracy gives citizens the ability to influence state legislature and legislate

Open primaries are defined as primary races where a registered voter, regardless of party affiliation, may vote in any party’s primary election (DMS Chapter 7). In other terms, an open primary means that a registered voter may vote in any partisan primary in a state no matter the party affiliation of the voter. Open primaries change the nature of elections in a state by increasing voter turnout within a state. Independents, who are voters not affiliated with any party, are allowed to vote for a candidate regardless to party (Clark lecture, Mar. 1). This is seen as a positive effect of open primaries as open voting allows for the break down of the rigid two-party system in the United States. The use of open primaries and introduction of independent voters also allows for more moderate nominees to be elected. The increased chance of having a moderate nominee being elected is a positive effect of open primaries. Electing a more moderate official is a positive effect of open primaries because a moderate official may lead to the decrease of gridlock in state legislatures and the increased hyper-partisanship within state legislatures. However, there has been research that reveals that independent voters may not always vote for the moderate official during an election (Kaufmann 2003). This leads to independents voting for more extreme partisan candidates, which aids in the increasing partisanship in the