Independent Voter Project Talks Nevada, Nonpartisan Primaries, and Voter Choice on ‘775 Alive’

Chad Peace of the Independent Voter Project sat down this week with Crystal Newton and Scott Gavorsky on their podcast, 775 Alive, a Nevada-based show that takes the kind of local civic questions most political media glosses over and really digs into them.
Crystal and Scott aren't looking for talking points. They're looking for answers, and with nonpartisan voter registration on the rise across Nevada, they wanted to understand what a shift to a nonpartisan primary system would mean for the state and its voters.
That's where Chad came in. The conversation covered the motivations behind nonpartisan primary reform, how the rights of political parties stack up against the rights of individual voters, examples of open primary and ranked choice systems from around the country, and what Nevada might learn from California's experience.

Chad developed the voter outreach strategy for Proposition 14 in 2010, the initiative that created California's current nonpartisan Top Two primary system, so he wasn't speaking in abstractions.
775 Alive's audience is Nevada-first. They're asking because they live with the consequences of how their elections are run — not because they're loyal to a party or a cause.

The episode is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, and YouTube. Listen below.
Susan von Seggern




