Oklahoma Closes Its Primaries and New Group Launches to Champion Independents Heading Into Ballot Campaign

Independent voters in Oklahoma will be shut out of  primary elections for the 2026-2027 election cycles after the State Democratic Party failed to inform the SOS of their interest in conducting an open primary. The state Republican Party has conducted closed primaries for years. Coverage of the change has blanketed the Sooner state. 

Now, as the 90-day signature gathering effort to put Open Primaries backed State Question 836 (top two open primaries) on the 2026 ballot ramps up, a new group has formed to champion the state’s half million independent voters led by longtime OK reformer Andy Moore.

And ICYMI-OKC Mayor David Holt, the head of the US Conference of Mayors and longtime friend of Open Primaries, continues to champion State Question 836. Check out his appearance this week on ABC News where he talks about how open primaries will improve the lives of everyday Oklahomans.

Open Primaries Launches New Litigation Platform

Until this year, the political reform movement wasn't going to court. That’s despite the fact that litigation has been a key component of every change movement in American history.

Open Primaries set out to change that. We developed new legal analysis. We built relationships with attorneys across the country. And this week, we are launching a new first-of-its-kind litigation platform. Now you can find all the up to date case information on every new legal development in the primary reform space. And there have been a lot of developments! 

Last week, a  group of five independent voters including CNN political commentator Michael Smerconish filed a lawsuit -supported by Open Primaries- asking a Pennsylvania court to end the commonwealth’s bar against independent voters participating in primary elections. The new petition includes first of its kind expert testimony citing Pennsylvania election data that shows how denying unaffiliated voters participation in primaries dilutes the power of their votes. 

Earlier this year we filed voting rights litigation in Maryland and are supporting cases in states from Wyoming to Oregon. We also broke new ground in federal court, establishing the right of independent voters to challenge their exclusion from voting. Our brief to the US Supreme Court laid out the fundamental questions raised by the rise of independent voters and access to primary elections that we believe American courts (and the public at large) must grapple with. Hundreds of news outlets have covered these cases in just the last few months. Check out SVP Jeremy Gruber on CNN.

That’s a LOT of progress, and you can now follow it all on the new Open Primaries litigation platform.

Let All Workers Vote

Utah Forward Party: Innovation at Work. 

When Utah State Senator Dan Thatcher first changed his party affiliation earlier this year from Republican to Forward, it caused a small ripple. Then, when he declared his intent to resign before the end of his term, it started to turn heads.

Like a number of other states, Utah law allows the retiring officials’ party to determine the replacement that will finish out his term. Rather than following the normal script (make a backroom deal) the Forward Party implemented a  bold new experiment in direct democracy, holding an open nonpartisan election where every registered voter in the  district, regardless of party affiliation, could vote with a secure online ballot administered by Secure Internet Voting (SIV). The final winner was determined using approval voting.  a first for a state used to having party officials determine replacement candidates behind closed doors.

Independent voters are on the verge of becoming a majority of all voters in Colorado. Now a new poll from Let Colorado Vote finds a large share of them do not trust either the Democratic or Republican political parties to lead the country, and they value -above all else- their electoral flexibility in primary elections. Perhaps most interestingly there had been some debate in the state as to whether Colorado independents, many of whom became independent through the state’s automatic voter registration process, had genuine political identities. This new poll has ended that debate, finding that voters are making an active choice not to register with a party and remain independent because of their political values. 

In other words….independents are independent FOR A REASON!  

Read the whole poll here.

It’s crunch time. We’re prepping for a big year in 2026. Ballot measures and legislation in multiple states.  Working to prevent the Texas GOP from imposing closed primaries in the Lone Star State. Challenging the use of tax dollars to conduct closed primaries in multiple states.  Mobilizing independents to protest their exclusion from the midterm primaries.  Research, outreach and advocacy.  

We are pushing the envelope, developing new tactics, and mainstreaming the conversation about how we elect our leaders, not just who we elect.  

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt put it best:

We need your help to maximize our reach in 2026.  Will you make a year end tax deductible contribution to support all of our work next year?  

MAKE A TAX DEDUCTIBLE GIFT TOWARD OUR END OF YEAR CAMPAIGN TODAY.

Thank you in advance, and Happy Holidays!  

The Open Primaries Team