Letter: Problems plague open primary

On Dec. 14, the Appeal-Democrat carried a column by Thomas D. Elias in support of the "Top-two open primary" that voters will see on their June 2010 ballot. Even though the column was quite lengthy, it did not mention some problems with that measure:

• It bans write-in votes at the November election for State Office and Congress.

• It makes it more difficult for ballot-qualified minor parties to remain on the ballot.

• It doesn't treat all candidates equally, because it provides that some candidates with a party preference may have a party label and others may not.

• It shuts off all routes to the November ballot for candidates who don't file as early as mid-March of an election year.

As to the second problem: existing law says a party remains on the ballot if it polls 2 percent of the vote for any statewide race in the midterm years (such parties are the Green, Libertarian, Peace & Freedom, and American Independent parties). These parties can surmount that hurdle.

But under "top-two open primary," parties would no longer have nominees in mid-term years, so those parties could only remain on the ballot if they met the severe requirement for a new party to qualify, that they have registration of 1 percent of the last gubernatorial vote. That will probably be 100,000 after November 2010. Peace & Freedom Party now has 58,000, so it would be unable to remain on the ballot. Libertarians, with 82,000, would be threatened as well.

Richard Winger

San Francisco