As we’re getting ready for the joint Kingston Wire-Hudson Valley Pilot candidates’ forum with Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha and challenger Gabi Madden, set for Monday, June 17 at 6 p.m. at Old Dutch Church in beautiful and historic Uptown Kingston, some thoughts about primaries, elections and the power of individual voters came to mind. Your Editorial Team would like to share them.

It's hard to believe, but it’s been 13 years since we had the first primaries in Kingston which, rather than the general election, decided the winner of a political office. We speak of course of the 2011 Democratic mayoral primary. It was a super-close race, but its winner, Shayne Gallo, in an outcome predicted by everyone in town, had no problem dispatching his GOP rival. Four years later in the Democratic mayoral primary, Steve Noble came out on top and, in another outcome predicted by everyone in town, easily beat the Republican candidate.

Since then, the trend of the primaries, not the general elections, being the ones to watch has accelerated, especially here in Kingston, where meaningful opposition to the Democratic Party no longer exists in city politics. For countywide races, the Democratic primary also pretty much decides who the winner will be. And of course, that’s true of the 103rd Assembly District. Two years ago in the Democratic primary, Shrestha won the party line over longtime incumbent Kevin Cahill — and Madden is trying to do the same thing to Shrestha.

So if the real races are in the primary, what does that mean? Several things, but the most important one, we think, is the fact that a pretty small portion of eligible voters are calling the shots. Now, it’s not hard to become eligible to vote in a Democratic primary. All it takes is registering as a Democrat. If you’re not registered to vote at all, you have until Saturday, June 15 to join the Dems and vote in the June 25 primaries. If you’re already enrolled in a party and want to change so you can vote in the Democratic party, all you have to do is build a time machine and jump back to Valentine’s Day, because that was the deadline. (If your V-Day didn’t go as well as you’d hoped, it’s also another chance at romance, after you fill out your paperwork and place big-money sports bets on games where you already know the outcome.)

Which brings us to the question: Should New York switch to an open primary system? Nineteen states allowed any registered voter to participate in any party’s primary; another seven have semi-closed primaries where unaffiliated voters can vote in party primaries, but Republicans can’t vote in Democratic primaries and vice versa. Of the remaining states, nine have the option of making primaries open on a case-by-case basis. The rest, including New York, have closed primaries. If it isn’t your party having the primary, or if you aren’t enrolled in any party, you’re out of luck.

New York has traditionally kept a pretty tight leash on elections — some allege that the complexity and specificity of our election laws have the effect, intended or un-, of minimizing the chances that “outsider candidates” have of getting on the ballot or, heaven forbid, get elected to office. New York has also traditionally encouraged the amassing and consolidation of political power. Unpredictable elections threaten that consolidation.

There are good arguments for closed primaries, often centered around the potential for trickery, i.e., a bunch of Democrats could vote in a GOP primary for the candidate they think their candidate has a better chance against. It’s worth noting again that as long as you know the deadlines on the political calendar, it’s not that much of a hassle to enroll in a political party in this state. It doesn’t cost anything except a few strokes of a pen, and perhaps your pride if you feel that strongly about it.

But it seems to us that arguments for closed primaries assume competitiveness between the major parties, something we don’t have in Kingston anymore. If the real contest is the primary, doesn’t that disenfranchise many voters and give a small number of people a disproportionate amount of impact on the political process? Yes, and yes.

We think it’s time to reconsider how primaries work in this state. We’d like to see changes that allow more, not fewer, voters to participate in the process. A lot of New York Democrats get upset with what they see as too-restrictive laws in other states, like Georgia, but it’s time they looked in the mirror and ask themselves if reform starts at home.

Meanwhile, our June 17 forum will include questions from the audience. If you would like to submit a question for consideration, please email it to info@kingstonwire.com. Thanks!