Thursday, June 4, 1998
Open primary results in high voter turnout
ANALYSIS: Parties wary of crossover in elections, will fight
rule in court
By Lawrence Ferchaw
Daily Bruin Staff
California’s first open primary election doesn’t appear to have
lived up to the worst fears of political parties, even though the
parties plan to continue their challenge in court.
While political parties were worried that the new rules would
undermine the political process, election returns show that voters
enjoyed the freedom of the open primary and turned out in the
highest numbers since 1982.
"People felt they had a choice," said Elena Stern, spokesperson
for gubernatorial candidate Al Checchi.
The voter-passed open primary rule allows voters to vote for any
candidate, regardless of their party affiliation. Previously,
voters could only vote for candidates from their party.
"More people are eligible to vote for candidates," Charles said
of the open primary. "They (independents) had an added incentive to
come to the polls."
Independents, who make up 12 percent of registered voters, could
vote for candidates in the new primary where they could not
before.
A Los Angeles Times exit poll showed 58 percent of voters
enjoyed the choice while only 15 percent felt it undermined the
purpose of primaries.
With almost all precincts reporting and absentee ballots not yet
counted, the Secretary of State reports that 38.4 percent of
registered voters cast ballots.
This number should increase to 41 or 42 percent once absentee
ballots are counted, according to Alfie Charles, spokesperson for
Secretary of State Bill Jones.
It has been 16 years since voter participation topped 42 percent
in a gubernatorial primary.
California’s political parties challenged the open primary rule
in court last year because they feared it would undermine the
purpose of political parties.
"It appears that many Republicans did crossover and vote
Democratic," Stern said.
She added that this helped all Democrats, not just Checchi, who
was billed as the perfect candidate for an open primary. In his
campaign, Checchi initially did not identify his party
affiliation.
Despite this billing, Checchi finished in second place, while
the two candidates with the most solid party support won their
primaries.
Paul Frymer, a professor of political science at UCLA, said the
open primary has the potential to weaken political parties, but the
victories by the two party candidates indicate this was not true in
this election.
The political parties are not satisfied, however, and plan to
continue to fight the open primary rule in court after the fall
election.
"Even if one person crosses over, it’s against the grain of the
whole party system," said Mike Madrid, political director for the
California Republican Party.
At the same time, Madrid indicated he was happy with number of
Democratic Latino voters who crossed over and voted for
gubernatorial candidate Dan Lungren.
The open primary did not just allow for crossover voting, it
created the longest primary ballot in recent years; 17 candidates
were listed for governor alone.
Charles indicated the long ballot may have caused the larger
number of absentee ballot requests.
In the Times exit poll, 9 percent of voters indicated that the
ballot was too long or confusing.
With reports from Michael Weiner, Daily Bruin staff.