As we noted last week, four independent voters, including well-known journalist Michael Smerconish and long-time political reform advocate and Chairman of Ballot PA Action David Thornburgh, have filed litigation against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, arguing that its closed primary system violates their constitutional rights under the state’s Free and Equal Elections Clause. Open Primaries is among a growing list of individuals and organizations supporting the suit, including the primary sponsor of legislation to open the primaries.

Smerconish had OP SVP Jeremy Gruber on his CNN show this week to talk about how closed primaries shut out millions of independent voters every election year and to debate Professor Seth Masket who wants to keep it that way. Check it out-

New York:

The Charter Revision Commission held their final meeting on Monday. As Chairman Buery announced last week, the Commission decided not to advance a proposal for open primaries due to heavy opposition from Democratic Party leaders. The Chair addressed this in his opening remarks at the meeting.

Of the 13 Commissioners, 10 of them made comments during the meeting about the need to pursue open primaries and grant the city’s 1.1 million independents full voting rights. Commissioner Diane Savino said she was “profoundly disappointed” and talked about how NYC independents “...came in record numbers in either in person to sit through hours long or submitting written testimony to talk about how they felt they were being denied the opportunity to be able to have a say in the future of their city.”  Commissioner Shams DaBaron apologized to his children, 3 or 4 of whom are independents and said he wanted the city to really look further at opening the primaries.

The Charter Revision Commission’s final report has an extensive section on the need for the city to move to a system of open primaries and provides much of the background research and commentary for that to happen.

John Opdycke, President of Open Primaries penned an oped in Monday’s Daily News that looks at the obstacles still standing in the way of full voting rights for independents in NYC. He points out that “...the New York Democratic Party establishment made it clear that they would kill any open primaries measure should it be put on the ballot.”

And yet, he notes that what happened in NYC should serve as a roadmap for how primary reform continues to advance in NYC and around the country.

Washington DC:

Initiative 83 for open primaries and RCV was approved by a supermajority of DC voters in every Ward last November. But now the fight is heating up over making sure the DC City Council upholds the will of the voters.  

The initiative's pathway to adoption runs through the CIty Council, specifically getting them to amend the budget to include funding for Initiative 83. 

Lisa Rice, the proposer of Initiative 83, the CEO of Grow Democracy DC, a proud independent voter and an Open Primaries National Spokesperson is continuing to lead the effort and her coalition is whipping up votes on the Council. 

At the most recent funding vote, the Council snubbed the will of the voters by adopting only part of the Measure- RCV - but continuing to shut out the city’s 80,000 independent voters. In a biting editorial, the Washington Post declared:

The council is meeting again on Monday and possibly one more time shortly thereafter and Lisa and her coalition-who are leaving no stone unturned- do not yet have a majority committed to funding implementation. This is an all hands on deck moment. If you can help them get over the finish line, they need your support. Click here to donate and click here if you're a DC resident to contact your Councilperson.

As Lisa noted in an editorial this week:

Have Florida Democrats Seen the Light on Open Primaries?

As we reported earlier, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried is publicly toying with the idea of opening her party’s primary elections to no-party-affiliation (NPA) voters. In an interview this week, Fried lays out the reason:

What’s really going on here? In 2020 the Party led the fight to kill a ballot measure that would have fully enfranchised independents and continues to this day to violate the principles of an open primary measure passed in 1998 that allows for open primaries in cases where there’s only one party’s candidate on the ballot.

In a piece in the Orlando Sentinel, Open Primaries President John Opdycke and SVP Jeremy Gruber offer some context for the change of heart and advice for how Fried can assure NPA voters that they’re actually interested in embracing them.

In the weeks ahead, Open Primaries and Let Us Vote will be launching a campaign to pressure the Democratic Party to a) open their primaries and b) stop running phony write-in candidates that close primaries in districts where the Republicans don’t run candidates.  If you live in Florida and would like to be involved in the campaign, please send a “count me in” email to [email protected] and we will be in touch.  

Former Oregon state legislator Rich Vial who served as a Republican in the House and ran as an independent for State Senate has a sweeping editorial in this week’s Oregonian that lays out the structural and cultural issues that are driving partisanship in Oregon and across the country. 

He notes the critical reforms-like open primaries-that are needed to turn the tide and lauds the recent Open Primaries backed lawsuit launched by Mark Porter that would force lawmakers to address the lack of voting rights for independents; the state’s largest group of voters.

Have a great weekend

The Open Primaries Team