On March 8, the people of Michigan will vote in the state’s first official democratic presidential primary in decades.
Primaries can either be closed, allowing only registered party members to vote, or open, allowing any registered voter to participate, political science professor Sarah Reckhow said.
Although an open primary allows voter participation regardless of party affiliation, voters can only participate in one party’s presidential primary, former state senator Bill Ballenger said.
He said previously, Michigan’s Democratic party held closed primaries outside the state operated primary system.
“The state can say we’re going to have a primary on January 16 or March 8 for Republicans and Democrats, but if a political party says, ‘We aren’t going to accept the results of that election,’ they can pretty much render those results null and void,” Ballenger said. “A political party has the right to determine how it picks its nominees.”
The reason for the switch from primary to caucus by Michigan Democrats was because of fears of Republican interference after the 1972 Michigan democratic primary was won by then-Alabama governor and outspoken segregationist George Wallace, Lansing area political consultant Mark Grebner said.
Although both parties fear interference in their primaries by their rivals, Grebner said part of the reason for the democratic switch back to the primary is due to interference being less likely this election cycle.
The stakes are higher heading into Michigan’s polls, and thusly voters will be less inclined to use their one vote to manipulate their rival party’s election, Grebner said.
Grebner anticipates a Michigan record 2.2 million votes in the state’s upcoming primaries.
“It’s almost like a weekly TV series with the debates,” Grebner said. “Think about how many people are able to talk about what Donald Trump said in the debates? Millions of people, and if you can talk about it you’re two-thirds of the way to voting.”
Reckhow said that the new open primary system will probably create a substantial bit of business for political consultants like Grebner.
“In an open primary candidates and consultants have to invest a lot into getting voter lists that are good,” Reckhow said. “They expend a fair amount figuring out people’s demographics, where they live, how they voted in the past, to figure out people’s party affiliation.”
Reckhow said in a closed primary, things are much more simple.
“They know that the only people who will show up to a closed democratic primary will be democrats,” Reckhow said.
