Today is the day of the Massachusetts State Primary, the third of this year’s 4 elections. (There are 4 in Massachusetts towns, at least. I think Cities use a different schedule for their municipal elections.) The purpose of primaries is to whittle down choices such that we as a society don’t end up with two people with similar views going against one person with opposing views, leading to the possibility that the the one person would win when people were in fact okay with either of the two people with similar views.

Now, something like Approval voting or some other more complicated system of voting might be a better system in general. But for now, we have parties and primaries. It may not be the best system, but it’s not horrible.

The previous state primary in 2006 was quite interesting for my district, as there were 5 Democrats and 2 Republicans running for State Representative. This year is much less interesting, with no contested Republican races and 1 contested Democratic race (but not contested for State Representative).

But, if you’re in Massachusetts, I encourage you to look at your ballot and vote anyway. Feel free to write people in. There might even be more contested races in your district.