"Primaries are fundamentally different from general elections," Hall said. "It's not clear that they can or should be democratic in exactly the same way as a general election. If we let the voters decide who gets into office, in a purely one-person, one-vote way with plurality rules, some chaotic things can result from the large number of options."
In such a scenario, he said, voters could cast ballots on a very wide field of candidates not vetted by a primary process and as a result, “accidentally” elect someone who would not otherwise win. Primaries alleviate this problem by narrowing the choices to a few candidates, at least for the major parties, he noted.
"In some sense, this (the primary system) is fundamentally 'undemocratic,' but it's highly desirable in practice given our majoritarian system," he said.
If primaries did not exist, Hall said, it could return American politics to the time of 'smoke-filled rooms' and more extreme candidates, as party brokers who run nominating processes are unlikely to be particularly moderate people.
"If we let everyone vote in the primaries without any structure, we might prevent the parties from being able to choose nominees who systematically reflect their platforms," he said.
Still, key primary rules — such as who's allowed to vote, party members or non-party members, and how many delegates are selected — are receiving much attention, he said. Hall expects possible changes to these rules at both the federal and state levels. For example, the Democratic Party of Hawaii currently is arguing a case in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that will decide whether its primary can be closed to non-party voters — it's currently open.
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