GOP's "Open Primary" Draws Few Takers

Capitol Currents:

The Oregon Republican Party's offer to open a portion of its May primary to non-affiliated voters has attracted little interest. It's not terribly surprising, considering that none of the three races the GOP is allowing non-affiliated voters to weigh in on offered voters a choice, a fact that wasn't known when the Republicans made their offer in early February. Just one race--the Secretary of State's primary--drew any candidates whatsoever: Bend orthopedic surgeon Knute Buehler. No Republicans at all filed for the other "open" primary races--Treasurer and Attorney General. The GOP's offer did not apply to other races with contested primaries, such as the Presidential primary or several legislative primaries.Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown announced last month that non-affiliated voters who wanted a rare chance at casting a partisan primary ballot would have to send a pre-printed postcard to their county clerk's office. Informing the state's roughly 433,000 non-affiliated voters cost taxpayers about $200,000. Republicans, perhaps feeling sheepish about their link to such a plan, blasted Brown for using the postcard system. They suggested (though Brown disagreed) that there were cheaper ways to fulfill their request to partially open their primary.So now that the deadline has passed for non-affiliated voters to request a Republican primary partial ballot, how many such voters took up the GOP on their request? Hardly any at all, it turns out. According to the Secretary of State's office, just 12,401 requests were made. That's fewer than 3% of those eligible. And of course, the number of those voters who actually cast that ballot is bound to be even less.

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