THE OPEN PRIMARY

On June 2, voters for the first time since 1959 can jump across party lines
and cast their election ballots for any candidate

AN ABUNDANCE of candidates and measures in our first-ever "open primary"
suggests that it's time, just three weeks before the June 2 election, to
begin marking up the sample ballots sent to every registered voter in
California.

Use a pencil, not a pen. Keep those options open. And there's no shortage of
options.

That's because this is the second-most confusing primary election since
1913, when cross-filing in the direct primary in California was instituted
by reformers as a way to break the power of the two parties and, as it
turned out, to almost guarantee political longevity. It's all but forgotten
today, but the cross-filing system then allowed a Democrat, for example, to
file as a candidate on primary ballots of each party - and without a hint of
party affiliation. The only label was "incumbent," and the incumbent's name
was placed at the top of the list. A candidate who won both major party
nominations, which was often the case, didn't have to worry about the
general elections in November.

Cross-filing, which greatly favored the Republicans who dominated California
politics in the 1950s, was abolished in 1959 and replaced with the
conventional "closed primary," which gave an edge to the Democrats in a
state where they enjoyed a 3 to 2 margin in registration. Under that system,
voters have been restricted in the primaries to voting for candidates in
their own party. Those who registered as "independents" weren't allowed to
vote for partisan offices in the primary. If they were registered in fringe
parties, their votes were restricted to nominees with no chance to win.

But in 1996, California voters enacted Proposition 198, which lets voters
cross party lines in primary elections. It survived courtroom challenges
brought by both major parties. They were burdened with bipartisan fears that
their powers would be weakened when all candidates for each partisan office
are lumped together in a single list on the Votomatic card. In the new
system, any voter gets to punch a hole next to the name of one of the
candidates, regardless of party, but only one. The top vote getters in each
party will appear on the November ballot.

Surviving from the former system are votes within each party for members of
their county central committee and, of course, for ballot measures,
nonpartisan offices and judgeships. Voters on June 2 will have far more
choices than in past primaries, with more than 100 candidates in as many as
20 races, eight statewide propositions and various local measures (in San
Francisco, an even dozen). For the first time, voters who register as
"independent" can vote for somebody - and anybody.

This newspaper supported Prop. 198 in the expectation that it would shake
things up. As an example: Because publisher Steve W. Kubby is assured of
nomination as the Libertarian Party's only candidate for governor, a fellow
Libertarian might choose to jump the fence and cast a mischievous vote for
marijuana advocate Dennis Peron in his attempt to tweak his prosecutor,
state Attorney General Dan Lungren, in seeking the Republican nomination.

It's going to be interesting.

©1998 San Francisco Examiner

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett