Shawn Griffiths
While on opposite sides of the political spectrum, the rise of Trump loyalist candidates on the Republican side and Democratic Socialists on the Democratic side can be attributed to the same thing:
The use of single-party primaries that draw a small group of highly motivated ideological hardliners and create an incentive for candidates to appeal to political minorities that do not represent the electorate as a whole.
In many cases, these contests are closed and lock out millions of independent voters or make the process so confusing or cumbersome for independents (like in Arizona) that they are discouraged from participating.
And even when they are open to independents, candidates don't try to appeal to these voters because they know they only need a handful of the electorate to win, which in states like New York and Maryland can mean less than 4% of voters.
Shawn Griffiths
Open Primaries President John Opdycke appeared on Meet the Press this past weekend to discuss this issue.
"A number of states have eliminated party primaries and gone to people's primaries where everyone gets to vote for whomever they want, just like in the general election," he explained.
Three states have a nonpartisan primary model: Alaska, California, and Washington. California and Washington advance the top two candidates, regardless of party.
Alaska advances four candidates to November and uses ranked choice ballots to determine a majority winner.
In all 3 states, every voter—Republican, Democrat, independent, third party—get the same ballot. They get the same choices. They are not limited on which candidates they can pick.
"Every single week, 10,000 Americans change their voter registration from Democrat or Republican to independent," Opdycke added.
"It's now 48% of the country, fastest growing segment of the electorate. And yet, our election system is set up where independents are seen as interlopers and outsiders, and they don't quite fit in the structure of the existing system."
Opdycke is part of a growing list of reform leaders who are increasingly being featured in the national media spotlight, getting legacy outlets to talk about what independent voters and reformers have known for decades.
Specifically, the country is in the political mess it is in today because the system tells millions of independent voters to sit out while it encourages hyper-partisanship and division.
The standard argument against open primaries from party leaders and partisan interests that benefit from the status quo argue that primaries are a private affair and non-members shouldn't pick party nominees.
They assert that opening primaries deprives party members of their ability to select candidates who "adhere to the principles and policies for which" their party stands.
Opdycke counters by saying that the system being described is the one closed primaries already create, citing a poll commissioned by Open Primaries and the Independent Voter Project that found New Yorkers are joining the dominant party just for the right to vote.
"We found that 40%—40%!—of registered Democrats [in NYC] are actually independents and Republicans," he said. "People join a party only to gain the right to vote."
He added that if closed primary advocates want partisan purity, then they should want an open system that doesn't force voters to join their party just so they can have a meaningful vote in elections.
Check out the full interview above.