Why Arizona Should Vote in Favor of Prop 140

An appeal to the center and to sanity.

The other day I was driving to work, and I saw this sign off of the exit on the freeway. The sign made me ask myself, “okay, what is Prop 140?” I hadn’t heard of it until then, and I try to make a point of doing my own research as much as I can before I vote. So, I looked into it, and I believe that the maker of this sign is exactly wrong. Let me walk you through what Prop 140 is and why I think that it is a good idea for Arizona.

Prop 140 would change the way that the primary system works for Arizona elections. The way that the current system works is that Republicans and Democrats hold primaries independently to nominate a candidate from each of their parties. Those candidates then face each other (along with any independent or other minor party candidate that managed to get enough signatures) in the general election in November.

Prop 140 would do away with party primaries and would institute a system of open primaries instead. There would be one Arizona wide primary in which Republicans, Democrats and Independents would all run. The top winners of the open primary would then face each other in the general election. The legislature will need to decide if it wants the top two or four winners from the primary to run in the general election. If they decide on more than two, the winner would be decided by a rank choice vote (here is a quick video on what rank choice vote is and its benefits).

What does this change actually accomplish? Instituting open primaries would help temper our elections. Voting in the past few elections has felt a lot like voting for the lesser of two evils. Prop 140 aims to change the incentive structure inherent in partisan primaries. In the current system, if a candidate is a Republican and wants to win their primary they need to appeal to the average Republican (who is, by definition, further to the right than the average Arizonan) and vice versa for Democrats. This motivates more extreme candidates to run and then be nominated by their respective parties. Primaries in general tend to have more turnout from the more motivated and extreme wings of their party, adding to this push towards the extremes. Open primaries would force Republicans and Democrats to appeal to the same voter base. This would encourage more centrism from candidates. Now, instead of needing to appeal to the average Republican, a candidate would need to appeal to the average Arizonan who, by definition, will be closer to the center. It would incentivize candidates to reach across the aisle to voters from the other side of the aisle in an attempt to gain their votes.

Why is centrism a good thing? Centrism encourages greater consistency of government. Let’s take the issue of abortion. At this point each party is advocating for wildly opposing stances. Republicans propose an all out abortion ban, and Democrats suggest that abortions should be legal up to fetal viability with exceptions afterwards for protecting the life, physical or mental health of the mother. I think that most Arizonans fall somewhere in the middle. Arizona is a purple state right now. We have flipped from Republican leadership, to Democrats, and could go back again. The risk with our current system is that with more extreme candidates being elected from each party a back and forth of legalizing and illegalizing could ensue. An example of this actually occurring is federal policy on climate change. Obama signed the Paris accords, Trump pulled the US out of that agreement, and if Harris is elected, she would presumably focus on climate change in a similar way to Obama. More centrist candidates could maintain a sense of consistency while party flip flopping creates a sense of uncertainty.

There are two main counter arguments to open primaries. The biggest risk commonly cited with open primaries is that candidates can attempt to boost opposing candidates that they feel they have a better chance against in the general election. I would consider this a non-issue however because there is nothing stopping candidates from doing that in our current system. And regardless, if the legislature decides on a four way runoff for the general election that would minimize the effectiveness of that strategy and actually shore up that weakness within our current system. The second issue is that an open primary system can lead to single party general elections. This absolutely can happen, but even in California (which holds open primaries) 20 out of the 24 statewide elections held since 2012 have included members of both parties. And four way general election runoffs would help with this issue regardless.

Open primaries are the solution that Arizona deserves to the extremism currently on display from both sides of the aisle. I refuse to believe that the majority of Arizonans are either these crazy far righters or equally crazy far left progressives. I think most of us lie somewhere in the middle. Shouldn't our electoral system reflect that?