Independent voters will finally have access to taxpayer-funded primary elections in New Mexico after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed SB 16 into law. Primary reform advocates are now celebrating a win that was several years in the making.
New York City has a massive voter suppression problem. A new report from the NYC Campaign Finance Board (CFB) found that 1-in-5 voters (21.1%) in the city are registered unaffiliated and are excluded from taxpayer-funded primary elections.
Pennsylvania Voters First, a project of Unite America, announced new poll data that found strong majorities among Pennsylvanians that believe the state's 1.4 million independent voters should have access to taxpayer-funded primary elections.
A new party launched Tuesday in New Mexico following the passage of open primaries legislation in the state. The Forward Party, which advocates for reforms like open primaries, is seeking 3,500 signatures to gain minor party status.
A new report from the Unite America Institute reveals a sobering truth about American democracy: in most elections, the vast majority of votes cast have zero influence on the outcome.
Election reformers are celebrating the adoption of primary elections in New Mexico that are open to the state's substantial independent voter population. But there is an even larger group of independents that could soon be granted access to these critical taxpayer-funded elections in Pennsylvania.
KOAT 7 in New Mexico featured an investigative report on the impact of open primaries now that Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham has signed SB 16 into law, a bill that opens the state's primaries to more than 330,000 independent voters.
As of Monday, New Mexico has officially moved away from closed partisan primaries and has adopted semi-open primaries that allow more than 330,000 independent voters to participate in critical taxpayer-funded elections after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed reform into law.
Litigation is often seen as a zero-sum game of wins and losses. In that lens, a recent 11th Circuit decision that upholds Florida’s closed primary system has been declared another win for political parties and closed primaries. But it’s the wrong framing.
Last week, the national election reform group Open Primaries held a Zoom conversation with former Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd to discuss voters' growing mistrust in American institutions. It was part of the group's ongoing Primary Buzz Discussion Series.
It has been a long road for reformers in New Mexico, but the legislature has passed a bill that would open state primary elections to a quarter of the state's voting population registered unaffiliated of a political party.
Closed primaries are coming to Louisiana in 2026, but a new poll shows that state voters across the political spectrum overwhelmingly favor open primaries where any voter can vote for any candidate running for office.
Shawn Griffiths
