After two Charter Revision Commissions, five op-eds in one week, and a new poll blowing up the "donor scheme" narrative, independent voters are done waiting to be invited into the conversation.
In New York City’s deepest-blue districts, Republicans are not a credible alternative—but coalition-minded independents could give voters the competition the closed primary system denies them.
A new ballot petition would replace New York City’s party-locked primary system with an open, ranked-choice Top Three election—putting more than 1.1 million excluded voters back in the process.
We sit down with Jeremy, Senior VP of Open Primaries, to dig into a new IVP/Open Primaries poll of registered NYC Democrats - and what it reveals is wild.
New polling finds most registered Democrats support letting independents vote in Democratic primaries — and nearly 4 in 10 say they only registered Democratic because New York City gives them no other meaningful choice.
The polarization we see in our politics is not a mystery. It is the predictable output of a system designed to produce it. Nothing meaningful can change until we fix the structure that keeps producing these outcomes.
Zohran Mamdani’s name appeared twice on the New York City mayoral ballot?! No voter ID?! Eric Adams appeared on the ballot despite dropping out?! Andrew Cuomo’s name appeared last?! An election rigged against Cuomo?!
The New York City mayoral election has drawn national attention in a way voters haven’t seen in modern history. This is because Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, 33 and a self-described democratic socialist, is poised to win based on the latest polling.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo are currently playing a game of chicken with each other – leveraging the city’s electoral system to pressure the other to quit the race. The question is: Who will blink first? Or… are they headed for a collision?
New York City’s Charter Revision Commission (CRC) is considering a proposal to adopt a nonpartisan “Top Two” open primary system, which would allow the city’s 1.1 million independent voters to cast a ballot in primary elections they pay for.
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.”
Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani defeated establishment favorite Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination in New York's mayoral race, marking a clear victory for the party’s progressive wing.
Jeremy Gruber
Nathan Smolensky
Cara Brown McCormick
Independent Voter Podcast
Shawn Griffiths
Susan DiVito
