2 key legal rulings and a brewing court fight

UTAH: We saw a big ruling out of the Utah Supreme Court this week finding that the Utah Legislature overstepped when they repealed and replaced a ballot initiative passed in 2018 that formed an independent commission to draw up statewide district lines. This bodes extremely well for a future open primaries ballot initiative in the works. People for Utah Executive Director Barbara Stallone on the ruling: 

“This restores hope that the people of Utah can be heard, even when elected officials aren’t listening. This ruling is really about legislators being responsive to their voters. If they were, citizen initiatives would seldom have to happen.”

MONTANA: A Montana judge has ruled in favor of Montanans for Election Reform–blocking an effort by the MT Secretary of State Christi Jacobson who was attempting to disqualify petition signatures from thousands of so-called “inactive” voters in order to prevent the 2024 ballot initiative for top four open primaries from moving forward. Onward in Montana! 

ARIZONA: The Make Elections Fair AZ campaign to do away with partisan primaries and let all Arizonan voters vote is going to court to prevent lawmakers from using misleading and false language in the official state voter guide to describe the initiative. Sarah Smallhouse, Chairman of the Make Elections Fair AZ committee:

Many of the same politicians and pundits now calling for Biden to withdraw from the Presidential race were completely silent when the Democratic Party acted so undemocratically during primary election season-which would have been the appropriate opportunity to vet him and likely would have revealed his cognitive decline much earlier. The Presidential primaries need reform, but even reformers have avoided addressing them. Every state that has passed primary reform has exempted Presidential primaries - from Alaska to California. Opdycke and Gruber explore why this has to change and how in a new, extremely timely piece.

Read the full piece HERE.

South Dakota is by any measure a one party state, and the primary is the only election of consequence-yet only 17% of voters participated in this year’s primary election.

This November, voters will have an opportunity to change that and pass Amendment H for nonpartisan primaries. Let Us Vote has put together a powerful new video featuring the incredible team in South Dakota working for meaningful political change. Please watch and share!

COLORADO:  Tony Haas, veteran and the Colorado state task force lead for Veterans for All Voters is calling out political insiders who in the final days of the CO Legislative session slipped an amendment that attempts to undermine Coloradans constitutional right to vote on a ballot measure to reform their elections: “Colorado voters, not Colorado politicians, deserve the right to decide how elections should be run.”

IDAHO: Charles Coiner, a former Republican Senator from Idaho has added his voice to support Idahoans for Open Primaries campaign to open up the state’s primaries to all 270,000 voters in the state currently excluded: “There are consequences to this closed system. Special interest groups gain power when turnout is low because they can concentrate their efforts on a smaller voter base.”

OKLAHOMA: Oklahoma United is hosting another special burger night in Tulsa next Monday night 5:30-7:30 to hang out, share news about the movement in OK, and hear how Oklahomans are feeling about bringing more choices to all voters with the petition for open primaries. If you’re in Oklahoma and interested in attending, RSVP to Maggie Romine at [email protected]

PENNSYLVANIA: PA independents could sway the presidential election and member of the Open Primaries Spokesperson Committee and Independent Pennsylvanians Founder Jennifer Bullock was recently interviewed to discuss the 2024 Presidential election:

SOUTH DAKOTA: South Dakota Open Primaries campaign to create top two open, nonpartisan primaries that ALL South Dakotans could vote in is generating more and more media buzz. In a recent news piece from KOTA Territory, Amendment H supporter Steve Allendar lays it out simply: “Voting for Amendment H would be a very easy solution to make people’s vote count again.”

Meanwhile, SD Open Primaries Co-Directors Joe Kirby and De Knudson appeared on the Purple Principle Podcast with Open Primaries President John Opdycke to discuss everything that’s had to happen and align for 2024 in SD.

Listen to the full episode HERE.

WASHINGTON DC: Make All Votes Count DC’s Campaign to open DC’s primaries to all voters and implement ranked choice voting in primary and general elections–Initiative 83–recently submitted over 40,000 signatures to the DC Board of Elections (great WaPo article on that) As the campaign awaits ballot certification, they’re switching from the signature gathering phase to all-out campaign mode. And as you well know, campaigning takes money. The campaign will be holding an in-person fundraiser this Monday, July 22 at 6:30pm with prominent supporters, including Congressmen Don Beyer and Jamie Raskin, in attendance. If you’re in DC, you can RSVP here!

WEEKLY REMINDER: We have $200,000 in matching gifts from two generous supporters–we have until 7/31 to raise $200,000 to ensure we can take full advantage of our matches and that we have built up our war chest as we head into the fall where we’ll be going to battle with partisan insiders dead set on maintaining the status quo and preventing these reforms from passing. 

QUICK CAMPAIGN UPDATE: With 12 days left, we’ve raised $89,450 towards our goal–45% of the way there!

We know you’re being pulled in a lot of directions for support right now, but these local open primary campaigns that are going to be on the 2024 ballot in 7 states across the country (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota and hopefully Washington DC) demand our help and full attention. 

We need every supporter of ours who is able to, to give to this campaign and give generously. Help us support these state campaigns with the same level of ferocity, ingenuity and dedication that you’ve come to expect from our team. Passing open primaries in these states translates to millions more Americans gaining the right to vote. 

Can you come on board and help today?

Thank you so much,

The Open Primaries Team