No On 2 Campaign Wins Recount 

An election recount has confirmed the defeat of 2024’s ballot measure to repeal open primaries/RCV in Alaska.

The recount showed that out of almost 341,000 ballots cast at the Nov. 5 election, the repeal measure failed by 743 votes — a bigger margin (by 6 more votes) than the Alaska Division of Elections certified on Nov. 30! 

As the Vote No on 2 campaign put it: “

Alaskans have now voted twice in four years in favor of open primaries and RCV, and protected their right to vote for any candidate, regardless of political party. Alaskans want to keep the power of the electoral process where it belongs-with the voters.”

Reformers in New Mexico Host Strategy Meeting, Pursue New Bill for Open Primaries in 2025

In 2023, the New Mexico Senate passed a semi-open primary bill (27-10), which would’ve allowed independents to participate in primary elections. Unfortunately, the bill fell one vote short in the House. 

New Mexico Open Elections (NMOE), which has been leading this effort for a decade, has been working tirelessly since to grow their coalition and support in the legislature. 

Open Primaries Senior VP Jeremy Gruber and IndependentVoting VP Cathy Stewart joined the NMOE team including Bob Perls (NMOE Founder and President), Sila Avcil (NMOE Executive Director) and their Board this week in Albuquerque to strategize with the coalition and get the ball rolling on how the team can turn their near win in 2023 to a PASSED bill in 2025.

In a new op-ed out in the Oklahoma Gazette, the President/CEO of the Potts Family Foundation and former Oklahoma State Senator AJ Griffin, Ed.D. has added her voice to the chorus of supporters calling for change in the Sooner state laying out the many reasons she’s supporting the Vote Yes on 835 campaign for top two open primaries: 

“By voting “yes” on State Question 835, we can end taxation without representation, improve voter turnout and build a system that works for all of us. Let’s give every Oklahoman a chance to participate.”

Independent Voters Expanded Their Influence in 2024

In a new piece out in The Conversation, Jackie Salit and Thom Reilly (Co-Directors of Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy, School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University) used data from The Edison Research/National Election Pool to break down what happened in 2024 by the numbers finding: 

• 4.3 million fewer votes (total from ALL voters) cast for president in 2024 than in 2020. 
• The number of Republican voters decreased by 3.5 million, and the number of Democratic voters dropped by 11.2 million.
• 11 million more people who identified themselves as independents cast ballots in 2024. Meaning self-identified independents accounted for 34% of voters this year (higher than the 31% of voters who said they were Democrats, and just slightly below the 35% of voters who said they were Republicans)
• An 8% rise in independent voter turnout from 2020. 
• Independents were much more likely to split their tickets between their presidential and Senate votes than Democrats or Republicans.

“This changing shape of the electorate, combined with the popularity of political independence among younger Americans – over half of Gen Z voters identify as independents – calls into question the two-party formula that has long dominated and defined the American political landscape.”

Read the full story here.

2024 Roundup: Lessons Learned from the Campaign Trail

Our final Primary Buzz Discussion of the year will be a deep dive into where we are right now as a movement: what’s working? What’s not? How can we effectively  grow in 2025 to set us up for success in 2026.

 On Tuesday December 17th at 3pm EDT, Open Primaries President John Opdycke will interview Lisa Rice, Juli Lucky, Sarah Smallhouse & Chuck Coughlin.  Get ready for an unfiltered conversation on how the open primaries movement fared in 2024. 

We hope you join us for our last discussion of 2024! 

Laying the Groundwork in 2025

Let Us Vote is setting a 2025 goal of sharing the stories of 100,000 independent voters. As we shared above, Independents expanded their influence in 2024 and it’s time our fellow Americans see who independents are if they are going to get behind a movement to let all voters vote. 

Next year, Let Us Vote plans to lay the groundwork and tell the stories of independent voters and build communities in every single state to set the stage and ensure that America knows: independents exist, we’re here, and we demand our voting rights.

In preparation of that work, we’ll be hosting an end-of-year call on December 19th at 7pm ET, to help build the plan for 2025:

We’ll outline the progress we’ve made so far and what we’re thinking for 2025. Special Guests Open Primaries Senior Vice President Jeremy Gruber and Melanie Combs-Dyer, who launched LetUsVote Maryland, will join to talk through their experiences of 2024.

Most importantly, we’ll ask those important questions of you: what ideas do you have (and how can we support them), to make us successful in 2025 and beyond?

We hope to see you there!

END OF YEAR CAMPAIGN UPDATE

ICYMI: We’ve set a goal of raising $160,000 by New Year’s Day towards our growing list of 2025 projects. Since Giving Tuesday we’ve raised $59,170–putting us just over $100,000 away from hitting our goal.

When you make a tax deductible contribution, you are investing in our capacity to lead the growing movement of citizen-leaders who are crazy enough to want to do something about the disenfranchisement of tens of millions of voters and the awful state of our politics. We need your financial support to grow, to build this movement, to craft strong campaigns. 

Have a great weekend,

The Open Primaries Team