Court Hears Challenge to Open Primaries Ballot Initiative in Oklahoma

The Oklahoma Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday from the state Republican Party which commenced litigation in opposition to State Question 836 -a proposal that would institute top two primaries for the Sooner state. 

“Open primaries will not change the way political campaigns are run or how political parties can support candidates,” said Robert McCampbell, counsel for the state question proponents. 

“They can run their process however they want, and they can run their process with whatever rules they want,” he said. “They keep all of their First Amendment rights.” 

In a refreshing departure from how courts in other states have treated such challenges, these Justices offered repeated criticisms of the opponents of reform and strong support to let the voters of Oklahoma decide.

Vice Chief Justice Dana Kuehn declared that “the Oklahoma Constitution places all political power with the people of the state and this court has affirmed that it will not violate this provision by dictating what the people get to put on the ballot except in rare occasions.”  

The Court did not immediately release an opinion on the case. We’ll keep you updated on their deliberations.

Independents Stand Up Across New York

On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers went to the polls to decide who will advance to the general election in key municipal races in Albany, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and NYC; including a hotly contested mayoral primary in NYC that made national headlines as it could chart the city’s future. They were joined by dozens of independent voters who showed up as well. Not to vote, because they can’t in the state’s closed primaries, but to protest the exclusion of 3.5 million New York independent voters from the primaries and educate their fellow NYers on the need for reform. 

Despite temperatures in the high 90's, activists from Open Primaries, Unite NY and Let Us Vote turned up at poll sites from Harlem to Buffalo to talk with voters, many of whom were shocked to learn that independents were locked out of voting.  "Most Americans don’t know that New York and other states don’t allow independents to vote in taxpayer-funded primaries,” said John Opdycke, OP President.  Tim Hoefer, Interim Executive Director of Unite NY added: “Open primaries are an essential step to building a more inclusive democracy where every New Yorker can participate. We know that vision can be realized—as it has in so many other states—and are excited by how many of our neighbors continue to volunteer their time and resources to realize that vision.”

Kudos to Cathy Stewart who organized the project and all the Open Primaries, Let Us Vote, and Unite NY volunteers who made this happen!

Knives Come Out Against Reform at NYC CRC Hearing as Independents Rise

This week in Staten Island, the NYC Charter Revision Commission held their next to last public hearing. As Commissioner Diane Savino commented, addressing NYC's closed primary system “is the single biggest issue we’ve heard this year.”

And earlier in the week, dozens of NYC unions penned an open letter to the commission claiming that letting one million independent voters (50% of whom are people of color) participate in primaries would “ reduce the life chances of working-class Black people and other working-class people of color.”  Letting more people of color vote hurts…..people of color?  

Commissioner Buery addressed the naysayers by remarking that “we know this issue has already been considered by numerous Charter Revision Commissions over the years, its actually been put on the ballot before, tons of organizations and research….There is also a risk that you could take more time and never have a Commission that’s willing to put this on the ballot again. I think there are risks in every process. I do think this is on our agenda not by design but because we heard tons of people who want it on our agenda, it would seem disrespectful not to consider those voters.”  Well said.  

Other highlights:  

• Deborah Green from Queens spoke about her experience as an independent forced to reregister into the Democratic Party to cast a meaningful vote. She quoted from the Manhattan Institute’s Issue Brief, New York City Voters Have an Appetite for Electoral Reform Polling and Analysis. Their polling found that 23% of registered Democrats cite their main reason for affiliating with the Democratic party was in order to vote in the primary. This number doubled from 2024.  

• David Cherry, Open Primaries Board Member and President of the Leader’s Network in Chicago spoke about his experience growing up in NY where independents are barred from voting in primaries and the moving to Chicago with a nonpartisan system. David shared, “This system doesn’t automatically solve all of our problems. We still have to fight and advocate for the issues we care about. But the important thing it does is allow new opportunities to create new coalitions with new people.”  Commissioner DaBaron picked up on David’s testimony and said, “I just want to highlight one thing which I made a note of which is that idea of new coalitions with new people. That really stands out to me.”

• Eric Bronner from Veterans for All Voters talked about the number of veterans in NYC who are independents (65,000) and his experience in St. Louis in passing a nonpartisan primary system with approval voting. Under the new system, passed in 2020 by the voters of St. Louis, the city elected its first African American woman as Mayor, and the first woman elected as President of the Board of Aldermen. 

• Also this week, Murat Akaydin, a US Army veteran and NYC activist from Veteran for All Voters authored an editorial in The Chief entitled The New York primary system is leaving too many behind and Chris Kasker, retired US Army Lt Colonel penned an oped in the Albany Times Union: Commentary: New York should switch to open primaries, because voting shouldn’t be partisan.  

The Commission has one final hearing in Harlem on July 7th. Don’t miss your chance to weigh in. You can find out more about testifying by emailing Cathy Stewart at [email protected].  Take a moment and add your name to the Letter to the Charter Revision Commission and share it with your friends and family.

Closed Primaries Like NYC Screw Voters in Broad Daylight

In this week’s episode of the How to Fix It podcast, John Avlon chats with John Opdycke to make the case for changing how we vote, starting with the primaries. They explain why nonpartisan election systems in places like California are working and what it would take to bring those reforms to more states. 

As Opdycke put it, “95% of Americans don’t know independents can’t vote in primaries. 95% of people don't know that. So next year is a huge year for educating the American people about the rules of the game, because once we accomplish that education, we’re going to change the rules with a snap of a finger. I’m convinced of it.”

Have a great weekend,

The Open Primaries Team