Primary Elections

[Machaut]

The Cochran race illustrates what I view as a weakness of the system in his state;

Seems like a strength to me.

The weakness in the system that I was referring to was the ability of one party's voters to determine the nominee of another party. It seems to me that naturally, if someone is a loyal member of Party A, they would attempt to influence the primary of Party B to produce as favorable of a candidate as possible to Party A voters, thus diluting Party B's influence over their own affairs. Should we not have a fair and free elections process?

Keep in mind, this isn't the general election we're talking about; this is the primary election, where groups of people are choosing a single candidate to best represent their point of view in the actual election later on in the year. Do you believe, then, that no party should be allowed to even nominate a candidate for election that outsiders dislike?

In your opinion, should the primary system simply be abolished altogether?

Extremist defeated.

What do you classify as "extremist" about the views of the losing candidate in the runoff?

Elections shouldn't favor extremists.

Not even if the "extremist" wins the popular vote? Is it ever appropriate for someone to determine that the results of an election should be void in the event that a candidate they don't like wins?