Veteran Leader Calls CA Primary Repeal Effort a ‘Shameful’ Return to Partisan Segregation

SACRAMENTO, Calif – California Attorney General Rob Bonta released the official title and summary for the “Undo the Top Two” initiative Tuesday, which aims to repeal a primary process that gives every voter, regardless of party, the ability to choose any candidate they want.

According to the summary, it would ditch the nonpartisan Top Two model with a partisan system that “requires the Legislature to establish a new process for primary elections [...] whereby each party’s candidates who receive the most votes would advance to the general election.”

The initiative makes no mention of voters’ rights in primary elections. In fact, it eliminates language in the California Constitution that says “all voters may vote.”

‘Undo The Top Two’ Crossed Out “All Voters May Vote”

They say independents can vote. Their initiative strips the constitutional guarantee that lets every voter choose any candidate they want.

Independent Voter NewsChad Peace

The effort is being led by California Democratic consultant Steve Maviglio, who filed his initiative in response to fearmongering that two Republicans would advance in the governor’s race—which didn’t happen.

Maviglio has the support of former California Republican Chair Ron Nehring and MAGA-aligned Republican Assemblymember Carl DeMaio. DeMaio has even committed funding through his group Reform California as well as volunteers for signature gathering.

The goal is to return California to a system of semi-closed partisan primaries. Instead of every voter receiving the same ballot and getting a say in who advances to the general election, each recognized political party would receive their own ballot and advance nominees.

It replaces a voter-nominated system with a party-nominated system.

It is a system that tells independent voters—who account for more than 6 million registered voters in California—that they have no right to vote in taxpayer-funded primaries. The parties get to decide what rights they have.

Some parties might choose to let independents participate on their ballot, which would limit their choices to the candidates of that party. Voters will just have to trust the party leaders and operatives who say they will.

But the point is that the right to complete and meaningful participation in publicly funded and administered elections would no longer be guaranteed as it is by the state constitution today.

In response to “Undo the Top Two,” Veterans For All Voters founder and nonpartisan reform leader Eric Bronner posted on X that “going back to partisan segregation is shameful,” and noted the majorities of veterans and young voters who would be denied meaningful choice.

Independent Voter Project (IVP) general counsel Chad Peace noted on IVN that this is what the heart of the debate is about: “Undo The Top Two” asserts that political parties are the building blocks of democracy, while reformers like Bronner and IVP argue that voters are the building blocks.

In its response to Bronner, "Undo the Top Two" even said, “Under the Top Two, virtually no Independent candidates ever make it to the November ballot. Ditto other parties. Voters want more choices, not a ballot with 2 candidates from the same party.”

It is worth noting that the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) has found that more than 60% of voters have been satisfied with their choices under Top Two.

There is a way to give voters more choice in November without going backward. IVP, which authored California’s Top Two primary, encourages upgrading the system so that four or five candidates advance to the general election.

And, to ensure a majority winner, an alternative voting method like ranked choice voting would be used. It is a proposal modeled after Alaska elections and is something Bronner and Veterans for All Voters have advocated for since the organization’s founding.

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This would preserve a nonpartisan primary system that gives every voter an opportunity to vote for whomever they want in each election, regardless of party, while satisfying the main complaint against Top Two, which is that there aren’t enough candidates in November.

IVP is leading More Choice California, a coalition of reform advocates, in an effort to not only rebuke the Top Two repeal effort, but push for a Top 4 or Top 5 system.

According to the More Choice website, one of its first priorities will be the "California Right to Vote Amendment," which states that no voter can be excluded from participating in a meaningful way at any integral stage of publicly funded elections on any basis, including party preference.

This includes primary elections.