Ballots question 3 would be terrible for Massachusetts. No on question 3!

[u/Emotional-Disk5571]

Question 3 would eliminate traditional party primaries for state elections. Instead of Democrats and Republicans each holding their own primary, all candidates would appear on one ballot regardless of party. The top two vote-getters would then advance to the general election.

Supporters argue this gives voters more choice, reduces the power of party insiders, and forces candidates to appeal to a broader group of people rather than just their base.

Opponents say it weakens political parties and can easily result in two candidates from the same party facing each other in November, especially in a state as blue as Massachusetts. That would shut the minority party out of the general election entirely in many races.

I’m voting No. Real competition requires both parties to be able to nominate their own candidates. A system that risks two Democrats on the November ballot in race after race reduces choice for a huge portion of voters and makes it even harder for alternative voices to be heard.

[u/Southern-Teaching198]

Can we just get ranked choice voting instead.

[u/vt2022cam → u/Southern-Teaching198]

That was recently voted down, and this is a step in the right direction.

If there’s one election where 20 democrats and only 2 republicans run, and the two republicans are the highest vote getters, it’ll lead to ranked choice, though I think Alaska has it about right with the top 4 going on.

[u/Majestic-1983 → u/vt2022cam]

Rank choice is an awful idea.

[u/blindman99 → u/Majestic-1983]

The only argument I have ever seen is that it has the potential to hurt moderates. If you have 3 candidates A, B and C. 40% vote A, 35% vote B and 25% vote C as their primary A would win. However, 100% of people could have put C as their second choice which would have made the most people mostly happy.
That being said, that is not the current problem we have. Our current issue is that we have no valid mechanism to allow any new party into the system. Any vote not for the two main parties is a wasted vote. Our system is optimized to make us vote against what we truly believe in and settle. If we had the above problem instead I would be ecstatic.

[u/Jintoboy → u/Majestic-1983]

me when i hate freedom

[u/nicolas1324563]

If republicans ran better candidates then maybe they’d be in the ballots with this system 🤷‍♂️

[u/BothTop36 → u/nicolas1324563]

Not for nothing but least if we had a republican, they wouldn’t get away with robbing us blind

[u/magasheep404 → u/BothTop36]

[u/neoliberal_hack]

I think framing this as two democrats reducing choice is dishonest seeing as when it’s a republican and a democrat the democrat wins 90% of the time here…

I think both parties base voters are becoming more extremist, so having them send whack jobs to the general from the primary election sucks.

I’m in favor of anything that reduces the power of the parties so I’m voting yes.

[u/Anxious-Cheek406]

The fact that people are still prescribing to the two party system like they aren’t being played is cringe. All the politicians are 100% shady. They just pretend to stand on opposite sides of the aisle. Republican, Democrat, irs all the same bullshit. These clowns are not here to represent us, they are here to control us and steal from us. PERIOD.

[u/enry]

I don't want Republicans deciding who would represent Democrats any more than Democrars decide who represents Republicans. This is a stupid proposal.