Quinn: Make Illinois Primaries Open

By Chuck Sudo in News on Nov 16, 2010 1:30PM

Registered voters in Illinois voting in primaries are limited to who they can vote for based on party affiliation. You have to choose your party affiliation and then only use the ballot of that party. There are some exceptions, such as our upcoming mayoral election. Otherwise, it's one party, one ballot.

Governor Quinn is in favor of having "open" primary elections and has gone so far as to insert language to that effect into some election-related legislation. There are questions as to whether what Quinn did is legal, and it will certainly face a challenge in Springfield, but not because of its legal ramifications. Lawmakers in the General Assembly use separate primary ballots to target voters for future campaign donations and to keep tabs on who's actually voting.

Reform groups across the state are in favor of open primaries. So are those of us who don't vote straight party tickets. Yes, this Chicagoisto voted for some republicans in the recent general election, though none that we felt could do any real damage.