Top-Two Primary: It’s About Accountability Stupid

image
Author: Chad Peace
Published: 23 Jul, 2014
Updated: 21 Nov, 2022
2 min read

In 2010, California became the second state to adopt a nonpartisan, “Top-Two” primary, where all candidates and voters participate on the same ballot.

 

 

There’s a common misconception about the purpose of the Top-Two primary that infects nearly every commentator, political scientist, and other so-called election expert: that Top-Two is intended to produce moderation.

Rarely do these folks ever consider that the purpose behind Top-Two might be more fundamental and less focused on a particular outcome: that representatives should be accountable to people instead of parties.

It is almost universally accepted and recognized that partisanship has infected our political discourse and reduced our electoral system to a game of Democrats v. Republicans. Pollsters and consultants work together to divide the electorate between superficial red and blue teams and take it as an axiom that everyone who doesn’t wear a particular jersey has one hiding in their closet.

As a consequence, the same folks that pontificate over our political permutations see the Top-Two primary through the glasses of this same partisan perspective. Therefore, their mode of measuring the merits of Top-Two matriculates toward assessing its moderating effect; where its “success” depends on bridging a gap between two “sides” of the electoral game played by Democrats and Republicans.

But what if representatives are supposed to represent people, and not parties?

What if a candidate didn’t have to first be rubber-stamped by a private political organization before they had the privilege of running in our public elections?

What if a bill could just be practical, and not merely Republican, Democrat, or “somewhere in the middle”?

IVP Donate

What if some voters are “left” of the Democrats on some issues, and “right” of the Republicans on others?

What if the right to vote derived from the right of every individual to participate equally, regardless of their ideology, race, gender, favorite pizza toppings, or willingness to join a political party?

And what if the Top-Two primary was about making sure representatives are accountable to their entire district, and not just their party, or the so-called “moderate middle”?

Latest articles

Crowd in Time Square.
NYC Exit Survey: 96% of Voters Understood Their Ranked Choice Ballots
An exit poll conducted by SurveyUSA on behalf of the nonprofit better elections group FairVote finds that ranked choice voting (RCV) continues to be supported by a vast majority of voters who find it simple, fair, and easy to use. The findings come in the wake of the city’s third use of RCV in its June 2025 primary elections....
01 Jul, 2025
-
6 min read
A man filling out his election ballot.
Oregon Activist Sues over Closed Primaries: 'I Shouldn't Have to Join a Party to Have a Voice'
A new lawsuit filed in Oregon challenges the constitutionality of the state’s closed primary system, which denies the state’s largest registered voting bloc – independent voters – access to taxpayer-funded primary elections. The suit alleges Oregon is denying the voters equal voting rights...
01 Jul, 2025
-
3 min read
Supreme Court building.
Supreme Court Sides with Federal Corrections Officers in Lawsuit Over Prison Incident
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 30 that federal prison officers and officials cannot be sued by an inmate who accused them of excessive force during a 2021 incident, delivering a victory for federal corrections personnel concerned about rising legal exposure for doing their jobs....
01 Jul, 2025
-
3 min read