whatever happened to open primaries?

i just got my good old absentee ballot in the mail today, and i really don't like this new system we've got going here in washington. instead of giving you all the candidates on one ballot, they're now split up onto seperate ballots by party; you choose only one ballot (and thus only one party) and vote on that. true, i was probably going to vote for all republicans anyways... but not even having the option to vote democratic on some of the positions really irks me.

for their reasoning on this new system, or to register to vote, or to check out the candidates, go to www.vote.wa.gov. to any out of state readers, i urge you to vote in your respective states. i've only tried for a few of them, but i believe you actually have to go to your state's home page (example: www.ca.gov) and link to elections stuff from there. make sure to get informed before you vote.