My wife and I are, and have been, registered 'No Party Affiliation' for years. I was registered Republican before Reagan. There's a national movement to open primaries so that everyone can vote for whoever they want, regardless of how their registered. But so far, it's only in some states. But there is a way you can at least choose which ballot you get if your state doesn't yet have an open primary. Say Weld does run against Trump in the GOP primary next year. And if your main objective is to oust Trump? And you're not that concerned about who replaces him? Well, it looks like the polls, if we can ever again believe them, say that any of the Dem's can win; Race/Topic (Click to Sort) Poll Results Spread General Election: Trump vs. Biden PPP (D) Biden 53, Trump 40 Biden +13 General Election: Trump vs. Sanders PPP (D) Sanders 49, Trump 41 Sanders +8 General Election: Trump vs. Harris PPP (D) Harris 48, Trump 41 Harris +7 General Election: Trump vs. O'Rourke PPP (D) O'Rourke 47, Trump 41 O'Rourke +6 General Election: Trump vs. Warren PPP (D) Warren 48, Trump 42 Warren +6 General Election: Trump vs. Booker PPP (D) Booker 48, Trump 41 Booker +7 General Election: Trump vs. Buttigieg PPP (D) Buttigieg 45, Trump 41 Buttigieg +4 So, just maybe, if enough registered Dem voters would change their registration to GOP in time to vote in the 2020 primary, Weld just might be an acceptable choice in case the GOP wins again. Actually, from what I've seen of him and the Dem candidates, he'd probably be my choice.
I don’t think Weld can beat Trump. Hopefully Biden or Sanders will get the nomination, they are pretty sure to beat Trump. Warren probably will though, and has a decent chance of beating him. My favorites are Yang and Gabbard. What do you think of California’s open primaries? They are an improvement but ranked choice voting is better.
Primaries are controlled by the political parties. Democrats control and set the rules for their primaries and Republicans do the same. Each party in each of the 50 states decides whether it wants its primaries to be open (any registered voter can vote in it) or closed (only registered members of that party can vote in it). What makes it confusing is that in some states the parties have open primaries and in some states they have closed primaries. A political scientist, whose name I have forgotten, did a study comparing the 2012 and 2016 Republican presidential primaries. His conclusion is that if only the 2012 Republican primary voters had voted in the 2016 primaries, Trump would not have won the nomination. But in 2016 enough Republican state parties decided to have open primaries that the flood of new and lapsed voters rather than traditional Republican voters is why Trump won the nomination.
My wife has been an election worker for years. She said that she heard numerous, older adults, come to vote in 2016, both primaries and general election, and said it was their first time. And, that they finally had someone they wanted to vote for. Like it or not, perhaps trying to get every eligible adult to vote isn't such a good idea. If they've never voted, they probably are pretty ignorant about government.
Range or ranked choice voting would allow other parties to get some seats in Congress, and would not require constitutional changes.
