Low Turnout For Primaries Needs Fixing

     A major part of the problem, if not the root problem, of DC politricks is the party based primary system.  An amazingly low percentage of voters determines the outcome of the general election due to the overwhelming majority of Democrats in DC. Winning the primary usually wins the general election. In my view the biggest problem with the primary system is low turnout combined with a large group of candidates to split the vote.  
    In the April 1, 2014, DC primary barely 25% of registered voters participated. Thus while the "winner" of the election is credited to have received 44.24% of the vote, that represents less than 10% of the total number of registered voters.
    There are two solutions - both involve instant run-off in combination with either open primaries or making City offices non-partisan. As I don't expect the local Democrat party to just relinquish the power it has by creating a non-partisan form of governance, open primaries might have more promise in DC.
     The chart below list turnout in all the primary elections in DC since 1982 -

	Registered	Voted	Turnout
September 14, 1982 Primary	327,874	120,234	36.7%
September 9, 1986 Primary	243,372	85,094	35.0%
September 11, 1990 Primary	262,537	135,635	51.7%
September 13, 1994 Primary	304,387	149,457	49.1%
September 15, 1998 Primary	298,265	95,624	32.1%
September 10, 2002 Primary	301,593	104,001	34.5%
September 12, 2006 Primary	321,087	109,781	34.2%
September 14, 2010 Primary	370,416	137,586	37.1%
April 1, 2014 Primary	369,035