Editor's Note: The following is the beginning of an exclusive new series on IVN from the better elections group Open Primaries. The content originated from the group's weekly newsletter, "Primary Buzz."
Independent voters in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh showed up at polling places across Pennsylvania on Tuesday with a simple message: stop locking 1.5 million voters out of taxpayer-funded elections.
Joined by leaders from Let Us Vote and Ballot PA Action, independents spoke out against one of the most exclusionary primary systems in the country. While independent voters are the fastest-growing voting bloc in Pennsylvania — and across America — they remain completely shut out of the elections that often decide who ultimately holds power.
At the same time, the fight to end Pennsylvania’s closed primary system is breaking into the mainstream. Open Primaries President John Opdycke and National Organizing Director Cathy Stewart were featured in media outlets across the state, from the Pennsylvania Capital Star to a headline piece in USA Today, calling out a system that disenfranchises millions of voters by design.
As Opdycke put it:
For more than a decade, Open Primaries has been on the front lines in Pennsylvania — building legislative coalitions, organizing independent voters, and filing groundbreaking litigation alongside our partners at Ballot PA Action to challenge the state’s closed primary system head-on.
The pressure is growing, and it’s having an impact: This week Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro announced his support for primary reform!!!
What We’re Talking About…
Partisan Hacks Exposed in California
For months, California’s political class has been in full panic mode, breathlessly warning that the state’s Top Two primary system could (hypothetically, theoretically, maybe someday) produce the “catastrophe” of two Republicans advancing to the general election. The hysteria has been relentless. The logic has been laughable. And until now, the people pushing it have largely escaped scrutiny.
That’s over.
This manufactured outrage campaign is beginning to collapse under the weight of its own partisan dishonesty. Major outlets from the The Washington Post to Politico are finally exposing what many Californians already suspected: the loudest critics of Top Two are not neutral observers or defenders of democracy. They are entrenched partisan operatives and institutional hacks who have been trying to sabotage the reform since voters overwhelmingly enacted it 15 years ago.
Steve Peace
Their real fear was never “voter confusion,” “fairness,” or “representation.” Their fear is competition. Their fear is losing control. And their fear is a political system where voters - rather than party insiders, consultants, and ideological gatekeepers - actually decide elections.
In a blistering new must-read piece for IVN, former California legislator and Top Two architect Steve Peace joins Independent Voter Project Chairman Dan Howle to dismantle the latest wave of bad-faith attacks and expose the cynical political machinery behind them.
Leadership In Action
- The Forward Party invited me to address their national candidate training forum for a hard-hitting conversation on the growing crisis of partisan gerrymandering and how candidates can speak honestly about it with voters.
- Open Primaries (OP) President John Opdycke addressed candidates at a gathering hosted by Paul Rieckhoff and Independent Veterans of America, where he spoke about the emergence of a more serious, solutions-oriented brand of independent candidacy.
- OP National Organizing Director Cathy Stewart joined the Rensselaer League of Women Voters for a screening of Majority Rules and led a heated debate on the fight for primary reform.
The Washington Post Exposes the Bipartisan War on Democracy
As we mentioned earlier, the Washington Post editorial board delivered a blistering rebuke to California political insiders for their hypocrisy and openly anti-democratic attacks on the state’s Top Two primary system. But what makes the Post’s intervention so striking is that it didn’t stop with one party or one state.
Shawn Griffiths
From Democrats on the D.C. City Council working to block independent voters from participating in public elections, to Republicans in the Tennessee legislature pushing partisan loyalty oaths at the ballot box, the Post is exposing a pattern that transcends ideology or geography: a bipartisan instinct to crush competition, shut out independents, and rig the rules to protect political power.
That is what makes this moment unusual. One of the country’s most influential editorial boards is calling out both parties — not for policy disagreements, but for engaging in the same anti-democratic behavior whenever their control is threatened.
Check out Open Primaries President John Opdycke as he breaks it all down - first in a hard-hitting WAPO Letter published this week and then even further in this video.
Kentucky Tells 400,000 Independent Voters: You Don’t Count
As more than 380,000 independent voters in Kentucky were locked out of most primary elections this week, Open Primaries SVP Jeremy Gruber delivered a blunt indictment of one of the most exclusionary voting systems in America.
Gruber pointed out that Kentucky is not just behind the curve — it is an outlier. While 34 states allow independent voters to participate in primaries, Kentucky remains one of the last closed-primary strongholds in the country and the only Southern state still systematically shutting independents out of taxpayer-funded elections.
The contrast in the debate could not have been clearer: reformers arguing that every taxpayer deserves a voice in democracy, while party insiders openly defend a system that tells hundreds of thousands of voters to stay home unless they pledge allegiance to a political party.
Open Primaries Campaign to Rally New Mexico Independents Ahead of State’s First Open Primary Ramps Up
As we recently reported, Let Us Vote NM, a project of Open Primaries, launched a statewide education / Get Out The Vote campaign to mobilize independent voters to participate in the primary. With early voting well underway and primary day next week, that campaign is ramping up.
Upcoming Events
Rule of Law: The Operating System of Capitalism. A Conversation with Danielle Allen.
Friday, June 12th 2-3pm ET | 11am-12pm PT
The event is hosted by YPO Democracy Group. Be sure to register here
Every business is built on systems it does not control, the rulebook of the public market-- courts, regulations, public institutions.
- At its core is the Rule of Law, the foundation of economic trust, market stability and sustained growth.
- But, Rule of Law depends on a political system capable of making legitimate decisions that endure beyond the next election cycle, news cycle or partisan fight.
- When businesses can no longer trust the stability of the rules, growth slows, investment retreats and the cost of uncertainty rises for everyone.
Does our democratic system have the capacity to function at a level that supports a modern economy?
Join YPOer Seth David Radwell as he interviews Professor Danielle Allen and asks: What is the government’s role in creating robust systems that people trust?