LETTER: Open primary would be bad for Nevada

I guess open primary voting advocates and independents just don’t get it. When I first moved to Nevada in the early 1990s as an independent, I was upset that I couldn’t cast a vote in primary elections. Then I realized why.

Let’s say that a “perfect” Democratic candidate in a primary contest could easily beat any Republican in the November election. If it were an open primary, who knows, maybe hoards and hoards of Republicans (and independents, for that matter) vote against that “perfect” candidate to improve the likelihood of the Republican candidate winning the general election. Conversely, Democrats and independents could vote down that “perfect” Republican candidate in order to win in November.

In other words, open primaries open the door for voting against rather than voting for a candidate — which is not what the primaries are all about. Do that in the general. If you want to vote in the primaries, declare your party affiliation.