Keep Ohio's primaries 'open'

Ohio is doing just fine with its "open" primary system, contrary to the alarmism of Jim Renacci. The former Republican congressman from Wadsworth argued last week that the system, under which voters can change their political party affiliation whenever they cast a ballot in a primary election, had been "abused" by Democrats and Republicans who switch parties to meddle in the affairs of the opposition party. "This is called primary 'raiding,' and it's no way to run elections," Renacci wrote in a guest column published in the Akron Beacon Journal. Does that happen? Probably, but not at the scale Renacci seems to believe. Sure, some Ohio Democrats probably changed parties in 2016 in an effort to stop Donald Trump's rise by casting their ballots for John Kasich in the GOP presidential primary. Crossover voters might have changed the margins, but Kasich did well in Ohio because at the time he was the state's popular sitting governor. In his piece, Renacci didn't mention his own loss to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in last year's GOP primary, although there was speculation that some Democrats changed parties to support DeWine and oppose Renacci. Even if that happened, it wasn't the reason Renacci lost. He, farmer Joe Blystone and, to a lesser extent, former state Rep. Ron Hood, split the anti-incumbent vote, allowing DeWine to win with a plurality. As Lorain County Republican Party Chairman David Arredondo told us Tuesday, those Democrats who crossed over to vote for DeWine probably did so because they approved of his handling of the pandemic. That also helps explain DeWine's lopsided victory in November. Arredondo said he viewed open primaries as a way to grow his party, something he has focused on as Republicans have made electoral gains locally. He pointed to 2022, when the number of registered Republicans in the county jumped from about 17,000 voters before the May primary to approximately 32,000 voters after the August primary. By contrast, there were roughly 31,000 registered Democrats in the county before the May primary and around 33,000 registered Democrats after the August primary. While some of the change could have been the result of voters changing parties to vote for, say, the moderate state Sen. Nathan Manning in August against his hard-right Republican primary opponent Kirsten Hill, it's hard to believe that was the most significant factor driving the GOP growth. Additionally, many of the new Republicans and Democrats were probably formerly unaligned voters. It's also worth considering that, thanks to Republican gerrymandering, Manning represents one of the few swing state legislative districts left in Ohio. Other districts so heavily favor one party over the other that voters who want a say in who will represent them in the Statehouse might believe they have little choice but to vote in the dominant party's primary in their district. When elections are essentially decided in the primary, it leads to more extreme candidates beholden to their base. The same issue applies to Congress. U.S. Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green, who represents Lorain County, won reelection with 66.9 percent of the vote last year. Latta was hardly alone in a scoring a blow-out victory. An analysis by the nonpartisan FairVote found that nationally five out of every six House races were decided by 10 percentage points or more last year. (That doesn't include the 32 seats that were uncontested.) Limited options also can plague voters locally. Take the race for Lorain mayor in which two Democratic members of City Council are challenging incumbent Democrat Jack Bradley. No Republican is running, which means that absent an independent entering the race, the election will be decided in the Democratic primary May 2. The desire to weigh in on the city's next mayor might not be enough to entice Republicans or independents to ask for a Democratic ballot. As both Arredondo and county Board of Elections Director Paul Adams, a Democrat, pointed out to us, people talk about changing parties for a lot of reasons, but it's easier said than done. When voters change their affiliation, Adams said, they are essentially saying they support the tenants of their new party, which many people can't bring themselves to do. Arredondo, who was once a Democrat, told us it took him a long time to work up to asking for a Republican ballot for the first time. "For some people, political parties can be like a religion," he said. Renacci proposed setting a deadline in advance of the primary for voters to change parties, as is the practice in some states. Let's say the deadline was a month before the primary. At that point, many voters haven't made up their minds about whom to support and some haven't even started paying attention. That's why campaigns ramp up advertising closer to the date of the election. The choice to join a political party belongs to voters. The timing of that decision should belong to them as well.