Rally for Open Primaries: 2024 Reforms Offer Every Voter a Seat at the Table

Voter
Photo by Getty Images on Unsplash. Unsplash+ License obtained by author.
Published: 23 Oct, 2024
Updated: 18 Jun, 2025
4 min read

Photo Credit: Getty Images / Unsplash

 

Hundreds of US voters gathered Monday to not only celebrate a historic year in nonpartisan election reform, but also show their support for several 2024 ballot initiatives that promote equal voting rights for all citizens in taxpayer-funded elections.

John Opdycke of Open Primaries and Forward Party Founder Andrew Yang hosted the first-ever Virtual Rally for Open Primaries. The event was organized during an election year in which primary election reform is on the ballot in 7 states and the District of Columbia.

“This – to me – is the path to genuine freedom in America,” Yang said. 

6 states could adopt nonpartisan systems that replace party primaries with a single primary that is accessible to all voters and qualified candidates, regardless of party. DC could open its partisan primaries to 73,000+ independent voters.

And, in Alaska, reformers are campaigning to protect the nonpartisan top four primary system adopted by voters in 2020. 

Here are all the initiatives in 2024:

IVP Donate

Alaska: The “No on 2” campaign is fighting a ballot measure that would repeal the nonpartisan Top 4 primary with ranked choice voting in the general election reform voters approved in 2020.

Arizona - Proposition 140 ends taxpayer-funded partisan primaries in the state and requires state lawmakers or the secretary of state to adopt a nonpartisan system.

Colorado - Initiative 310 implements a nonpartisan Top 4 primary system with ranked choice voting in the general election. 

Idaho - Proposition 1 implements a nonpartisan Top 4 primary system with ranked choice voting in the general election. 

Montana - CI-126 implements a nonpartisan Top 4 primary system.

Nevada - Question 3 implements a nonpartisan Top 5 primary system with ranked choice voting in the general election.

South Dakota - Amendment H implements a nonpartisan Top 2 primary system.

Washington DC - Initiative 83 opens the city's partisan primaries to independent voters. Registered party members would still vote in their respective party's primary. It also implements ranked choice voting for all District elections.

Let Us Vote : Sign Now!

At stake are the voting rights of over 4 million voters registered outside of the Republican and Democratic Parties, as well as the rights all voters have to a meaningful voice in all stages of the elections process.

“If we are going to reach our full potential as a country, everyone deserves a seat at the table,” Opdycke said.

Monday’s rally was hosted by Open Primaries and the Forward Party, as well as Unite America, Independent Voting, Independent Voter Project, and Veterans for All Voters. Campaign spokespeople were also on hand to explain their proposals and field questions from attendees.

“So many voters are tired of the noise. Legislators have taken an approach from both sides that everything has to be about win-lose,” said David Oclander of Veterans for MT Voters.

“The overwhelming theme I’ve heard from voters is that they want better candidates and they recognize voting reform is a way to begin that process. Voters want lawmakers to stop creating issues and start fixing issues”

Reform advocates agree that the road to better candidates and more accountable representation begins with voting reform, but they also acknowledge that there is no single path to accomplish this shared goal.

There are 5 different approaches to primary reform up for consideration in 2024, something Open Primaries Vice President Jeremy Gruber called “an incredibly diverse and rich landscape of activity” in a previous interview for IVN

Each of these campaigns speak to unique statewide issues that have become exacerbated under partisan primary systems, including states that have led the way in reform, like Colorado.

More Choice for San Diego

Voters in the Rocky Mountain State have adopted an independent redistricting commission and semi-open primaries, but reformers there say more is needed.

“Still, in Colorado, 80% of state elections are single-party districts,” said Jason Bertolacci, chief of staff to former DaVita CEO and election reform activist Kent Thiry. “It just doesn’t work to have partisan primaries."

Thiry has spearheaded many changes to Colorado elections and is behind Initiative 310 in 2024.

Each state has its own issues to tackle, but the reforms in these states face their own challenges as well. Lawmakers in Colorado, for example, quickly and quietly erected barriers to make the road to nonpartisan elections difficult.

While it was a Democratic lawmaker in Colorado that was responsible, Republican lawmakers in Idaho have indicated that if voters approve Proposition 1, they will introduce repeal legislation as early as January.

Party bosses with the most to lose (i.e. the ones in power) tend to be the biggest opponents to reform, even when their own members support change – a further example of how everything for the parties comes down to win-lose. 

“There are a lot of Americans that miss the sense of not being beholden to one party or the other or not being super polarized,” said Yang. He added that this despair has activated more independents across the US.

“We can have leaders from our community that go out and make things happen without getting attacked, right or left, for compromising," he said.

IVP Donate

The few polls that exist for reform measures in 2024 show tight contests across the board, meaning each campaign will be working hard to shore up as much support as they can get going into Election Day.

In this article

Related 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
Picture of skyscraper in New York behind a bridge.
Knives Come Out Against Reform at NYC CRC Hearing as Independents Rise
Last week in Staten Island, the NYC Charter Revision Commission held its next-to-last public hearing. As Commissioner Diane Savino commented, addressing NYC's closed primary system “is the single biggest issue we’ve heard this year.”...
30 Jun, 2025
-
3 min read

Latest articles

CA capitol building dome with flags.
Why is CA Senator Mike McGuire Trying to Kill the Legal Cannabis Industry?
California’s legal cannabis industry is under mounting pressure, and in early June, state lawmakers and the governor appeared poised to help. A bill to freeze the state’s cannabis excise tax at 15% sailed through the State Assembly with a unanimous 74-0 vote. The governor’s office backed the plan. And legal cannabis businesses, still struggling to compete with unregulated sellers and mounting operating costs, saw a glimmer of hope....
03 Jul, 2025
-
7 min read
I voted buttons
After First RCV Election, Charlottesville Voters Back the Reform: 'They Get It, They Like It, They Want to Do It Again'
A new survey out of Charlottesville, Virginia, shows overwhelming support for ranked choice voting (RCV) following the city’s first use of the system in its June Democratic primary for City Council. Conducted one week after the election, the results found that nearly 90% of respondents support continued use of RCV....
03 Jul, 2025
-
3 min read
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