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The voices of voters are what matter most in our democracy. Ensuring elected officials reflect the views of those they represent requires progress on a number of issues, including strengthening the freedom to vote, campaign finance reforms, instituting fair voting maps across the country and making sure all voters can participate in the electoral process.
Voter turnout in primary elections is typically a fraction of the turnout we see during general elections for president, Congress and state elected officials. Partisan primaries exclude large numbers of voters from the process, meaning a small group of politically motivated voters can have an outsized influence. This can effectively elevate candidates to the general election who appeal only to the partisan extremes of either major party. The result is often elected officials who are beholden to a minority of their constituents, rather than a majority.
In his book, “The Primary Solution,” Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano identifies partisan primaries as one of the main drivers of political polarization and gridlock in the U.S. Because primaries are controlled at the state level, Troiano suggests that reforming the primary process presents a great opportunity to make substantive progress in pursuit of a more democratic and representative form of self-government.
Unlike Electoral College reform or national voting rights legislation, ending partisan primaries does not require a constitutional amendment or an act of Congress. In fact, states like Alaska and California have already taken steps to eliminate partisan dominance of the primary process by instituting reforms like ranked choice voting and top-two primaries.
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