Lawmakers Go on the Offensive to Prevent Reform  

ALASKA: The effort to repeal the state’s Top 4/Ranked Choice Voting initiative adopted by voters in 2020 cleared its final hurdle late last night as the Alaska Supreme Court ruled in favor of the sponsors. A lawsuit filed by opponents of the repeal had alleged state election officials had no authority to allow sponsors to fix errors in a filed initiative petition on a rolling or piecemeal basis. A lower court had already rejected that claim. Justices did not immediately explain their reasoning. Voters will now decide whether or not to continue using the final four (nonpartisan primaries with Ranked Voting general elections) system.

ARIZONA: Just last week, the Make Elections Fair Campaign was qualified for the November ballot. Now, after yet another opposition challenge, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled late Wednesday night that a Maricopa judge who qualified the signatures  “was wrong in refusing to consider some evidence from foes of Proposition 140.” 

The order directs the trial judge to examine the evidence "and determine whether the exhibits prove any duplicate signatures by clear and convincing evidence.'' 

Meanwhile, just yesterday afternoon, the same court rejected another challenge claiming that the measure violated the state’s “single subject rule.” That clears Prop. 140 for the ballot on constitutional grounds.

We should have final rulings in the next several days. The hard fight to bring nonpartisan primaries to Arizonans continues. 

IDAHO: ID Attorney General Raul Labrador has re-filed his lawsuit to try and stop the forward momentum of Idahoans for Open Primaries campaign to let all Idahoans vote. 

Luke Mayville, Spokesperson for Idahoans for Open Primaries: 

“Raúl Labrador is wasting taxpayer dollars to pursue a frivolous lawsuit. The people of Idaho have made it clear that they want an opportunity to decide for themselves. We are committed to moving forward and ensuring that every voter has a chance to participate in all elections, regardless of party affiliation.”

TENNESSEE: A Judge in Tennessee has dismissed a lawsuit brought forward by the League of Women Voters of Tennessee challenging the Tennessee intimidation law. 

"After being targeted for voting in a primary for someone I've known since childhood, I feel strongly that this law is simply meant to intimidate voters and suppress the vote in Tennessee." 

–Tennessee voter and plaintiff Gabe Hart.

“This law has discouraged Tennesseans from voting and will continue to cause unnecessary confusion for voters”

–League of Women Voters Tennessee President Debbie Gould

The judge ruled that these plaintiffs “did not have standing in the case, and even if they did, the secretary of state and attorney general are entitled to "sovereign immunity." The plaintiffs are now weigning their options on challenging the ruling.

In early June, Gallup came out with their latest findings revealing that 51% of Americans now consider themselves politically independent. 51%!

That is more than Republicans and Democrats COMBINED.

This was major news but there was absolutely no media coverage–none–on how the majority of Americans are fleeing the two major parties. Well, in the last couple of weeks that’s starting to change. 

Chris Cuomo did an entire segment on his NewsNation show highlighting how independent voter registration is outpacing both parties:

82% of new party registrations are outside of the two major parties. 

Joe Manchin mentioned the 51% of voters caught between the two warring parties in his most recent NY Times feature, OP Board Member Jessie Fields cited the same stat in an effort to encourage VP Kamala Harris not to ignore this emerging majority (including an even higher percentage of young voters).

In fact, less than two days ago at the DNC Convention in Chicago, Oprah Winfrey declared herself an independent voter: “You’re looking at a registered independent who is proud to vote again and again and again.”

There are millions of proud independents all across our country like Oprah who are very much a part of our political system whether or not the parties and the mainstream media acknowledge their existence or not. But it’s nice we’re starting to finally hear others say we exist too.

In this week’s Citizen Spotlight, Let Us Vote travels to Arizona to introduce us to Kevin Lockhart–an independent voter who has lived in the same home in Arizona for 32 years. His home community has politically transformed over time, but his desire to participate in democracy has not: 

"I want an open primary so I can see a full slate of all the candidates. I want [candidates] to go to the individual voters and let them know they're going to represent everybody."

OKLAHOMA: The Editorial Board at Tulsa World have come out in support of Oklahoma United’s efforts to repeal closed primaries in Oklahoma citing “more than 70% of legislative seats in the last three election cycles have been decided in primaries or were uncontested.”

As Oklahoma United continues to push forward to getting a 2026 initiative on the OK ballot, Tulsa World is backing the effort with their full support: 

“Oklahomans embrace their freedoms, and that's what this is about: freedom to seek office and freedom to vote, regardless of fealty to political party bosses.”

PENNSYLVANIA: A new poll out in Pennsylvania (Franklin & Marshall August 2024 Poll) finds that 3 out of 4 PA voters want open primaries–nearly 1 in 3 voters said that if PA had open primaries, they would change their party registration:

UTAH: We’re seeing a huge shift in political identity in Utah in 2024. Nearly 50% of Utahans that have switched their party affiliation this year have chosen to be unaffiliated. Both the Republican and Democratic parties saw net losses in their numbers this year.

Have a great weekend,

The Open Primaries Team