EDITORIAL: It's clear GOP voters want return to primary

Mar. 15—It's clear to us that Missouri Republican voters prefer a primary over a caucus, and they are unhappy with this spring's mechanism for choosing their candidates.

We urge lawmakers to listen to them, and return to the primary system we had been using.

Republican state Sen. Jill Carter, R-Granby, has a bill to do just that — reinstating the presidential preference primary election to take place in Missouri on the first Tuesday of March.

Carter told the Senate Local Government and Elections Committee recently that she was motivated by complaints from her constituents.

"I don't know about you, but I have received a lot of frustrated phone calls from citizens who are trying to figure out why we would have eliminated presidential preference primary," Carter said, according to the Missouri Independent.

We heard a number of similar complaints, too, when we covered the Republican caucus, including that it was too time consuming, inconvenient and those who couldn't attend didn't get a voice.

One participant, Debbie Green, of Joplin, told us she was concerned that 442 people made a decision for all the Republicans in Jasper County, and added: "I think a primary is more fair for everyone to vote. So many people can't be here this morning but with a primary you have all day to go to the polling place and vote. Working people, people with health issues, people with kids, this was tough."

Democrats stayed with a primary-style system based on mail-in votes and some in-person voting, set this year for March 23; Republicans held their caucus March 2.

Many of those who testified in favor of Carter's bill spoke about negative experiences, according to the Missouri Independent.

Denise Lieberman, director of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, said caucuses limit turnout due to their time-consuming nature, which keeps parents and working people from easily participating. She said caucusgoers also tend to be "party stalwarts" who can make the time necessary to participate.

Jeff Smith, representing the ACLU of Missouri, said that since caucuses require in-person availability, they are likely to discourage elderly and disabled voters from participating.

This will be a cost for taxpayers, of course.

Trish Vincent, the deputy secretary from the secretary of state's office, confirmed that Missouri would have paid $8 million to reimburse municipalities for the costs of hosting primaries in 2024. This year, those costs are paid by the party.

We favor a system that encourages the most participation, generates the most input and gets the perspective from the largest number of voters.

That's clearly the primary.