The League of Women Voters TN has just refiled a lawsuit to challenge a recently enacted state law requiring signs be placed in polling locations telling voters they must be “bona fide” party members to vote in the state’s primary or face prosecution. The problem? Tennessee has nonpartisan voter registration and an open primary-not only does the law conflict with the open primary, it’s not even possible for voters to comply with it.  

Our friends in Tennessee argue (and we agree!) that the law “creates confusion and intimidation.” A court previously dismissed the suit for lack of standing which has now been cured with new plaintiffs. We’re proud to support their effort and the broader use of litigation to enforce the rights of primary voters

IDAHO: BREAKING NEWS! The campaign to bring open primaries to Idaho has completed gathering all its needed signatures to get on the November ballot! The campaign needed 63,000 signatures and blew past that by  turning in 92,000 signatures from Idaho voters. Now they must wait for verification and certification from the state, Thanks to the thousands of Idahoans that joined the campaign and helped move Idaho one step closer to letting every Idaho voter vote. 

NEVADA: Vote Nevada hosted a candidate forum at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas to give young voters a chance to meet and hear more from candidates on the Nevada ballot and discuss the need to expand the state’s nonpartisan primaries to EVERY office. Open Primaries and Nevada Now joined the event to discuss the Yes on 3 ballot initiative.

We met a lot of enthusiastic young people and candidates excited about making elections more fair and competitive in Nevada. 

NEBRASKA: Nebraska’s primaries are less than two weeks away but 270,000 independent Nebraskans will be shut out of many races. That’s because the state maintains nonpartisan primaries for state legislative offices but closed primaries for statewide and federal offices. Nebraskans for Better Governance is working to change that and their leader, Norfolk Mayor Josh Moenning just wrote a great piece explaining why. The state’s Platte Institute also recently published a white paper examining the wasteful cost of administering elections to county governments across the state and found that: “the duplicative, convoluted process of printing and processing multiple versions of partisan and nonpartisan ballots makes primary elections cost on average as much or more than general elections.” 

The Let Us Vote and New Mexico Open Elections’ teams had an amazing weekend filming both independent and partisan voters from all walks of life on their experiences living with the state’s closed primaries and their advocacy for reform. Nearly 25 individuals shared their personal experiences. Many thanks to all interviewees!

Follow LET US VOTE on youtube to catch all this amazing footage from New Mexico as it goes live:

DON’T MISS NEXT WEEK’S DISCUSSION: On Tuesday May 7th at 3pm ET, Open Primaries Founder and President John Opdycke will sit down with Jackie Salit–a longtime Independent movement leader who has been organizing independent voters and political challenges to the binary status quo for 40 years to discuss the largest and fastest-growing segment of the electorate across the country: Independents. 

Who are independent voters? Are they figments of our imagination, kingmakers, both…or something altogether new? We’re ready to dig into this topic with her, shake loose old narratives and explore why precisely do independents cause so much heartburn among the DC crowd.

And if you missed our last discussion with Independent Candidate for US Senate Dan Osborn, check it out HERE! 

STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY TOWN HALL SERIES: On Monday Open Primaries SVP Jeremy Gruber and Unite America’s Senior Director of Policy and Partnerships Tyler Fisher joined New Mexico Open Elections’ series to discuss  the 27 million independent voters shut out of this year’s Presidential primaries. Watch the full conversation:

Have a great weekend, 

The Open Primaries Team