Tag: open primaries

As the New York City Charter Revision Commission considers a wide breadth of reforms to city policy, one reform in particular is catching the attention of both voters and the media: Ending the city’s use of closed partisan primaries.

New Jersey will hold its statewide primary elections on Tuesday, June 10, to determine who will appear in the general election for the highest offices in the state, including governor. These are important elections – and yet they will be decided by a marginal percentage of voters.

South Bay voters are navigating a monsoon of negative, and often misleading, political ads tied to the July 1 runoff election for San Diego County’s Board of Supervisors. But here’s the kicker: taxpayers are footing a $4.6 million bill for this completely unnecessary second round of voting.

A surprise last-minute bill to open primary elections to Nevada’s largest voting bloc, registered unaffiliated voters, moved quickly through the state legislature and was approved by a majority of lawmakers on the last day of the legislative session Monday.

Pressure continues to mount for New York City to change its primary election laws to include all eligible voters, regardless of party, as independent voters rally behind a simple message: "No voter should be required to join a political party to vote."

More than 330,000 independent voters will have access to state-administered primary elections in future New Mexico elections after the legislature passed SB 16 in March to end the state’s use of closed primaries.

A new lawsuit filed Wednesday by the Open Primaries Education Fund along with the law firm, Angor, Rapaport, & Skainy (DATRS), asserts that Maryland is violating its own constitution and the voting rights of nearly 1 million independent voters in the state by denying them access to taxpayer-funded primary elections.

A lot of people are talking about democracy reform in New York City, especially since the implementation of ranked choice voting. But while ranked choice voting in party primaries is novel, let’s be honest: it’s not “small-d” democratic. The fact is, the general election still uses a plurality voting system, which means candidates don’t need to win a majority, they just need more votes than anyone else.

Nevada’s largest registered voting bloc – unaffiliated voters – could soon gain access to the state’s taxpayer-funded primaries, if a new bill from Democratic Nevada Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager becomes law.

The Harvard Political Review (HPR) is a student-run publication at Harvard University that is widely regarded for high-level, nonpartisan analysis of political developments in the U.S. and abroad. Founded in 1969 by members of the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, HPR has been a launchpad for major voices in public service and academia.