Voters opting to cast votes in next month’s county primary races may have already realized that names can be deceiving.

Adams County will hold primary elections under the term “open primaries” but that doesn’t mean it’s a free for all come Aug. 2.

Open primaries simply mean that a registered voter can choose either the Democratic ballot or Republican ballot regardless of whether or not he or she is an actual member of that political party. Rather than calling it an “open primary” it’s probably more correct to call it a “pick-a-party primary.”

In many people’s mind that means they should be able to go down a primary ballot and vote for a Democrat for one office and a Republican for another, voting more for the candidate than the party.

That’s not allowed in Mississippi, however. Such “blanket primaries” have been struck down in several key Supreme Court cases. In one ruling, the court wrote that having blanket primaries would violate the rights of the political parties by forcing them to associate with people who do not share their beliefs.

If that’s the case, the current open primaries should also be struck down as they allow party members to “jump ship” and simply vote defensively to help their own candidates.

Ultimately, our political system has morphed into a system that by its Supreme Court backed nature, puts politics ahead of simply allowing citizens to freely vote.

We hope one day that our nation will modify its system to allow citizens to freely vote for the person, not the party.