Hi Friend,

We talk a lot about how partisan primaries disenfranchise voters, distort representation, and fuel political division. But you might be asking — “What does this really look like?” Well, as we wait for Alaska to count every vote in its exciting newly reformed election system, we can look at the New York and Florida primaries this week, as they highlight how the status quo leads to less choice and takes away the voice of millions of voters. And bonus, both these states also have not just partisan primaries, but closed primaries — a policy in place across nine states that denies unaffiliated voters from participating at all in primary elections. 

Here are three things we should consider this week… 

This week roughly 8 million voters had no voice

Every primary season, 11 million voters are excluded through closed primaries across nine states in the country. More than 8 million of these excluded voters live in New York and Florida. 

New York now has more unaffiliated voters (4 million) than enrolled Republicans (2.85 million). Why is this significant? Because this large block of voters, a group larger than one of the two major parties in New York (and this country), is barred from voting in the primary. In essence, NY’s closed primary system takes away at least the voice of more than 20% of the age-eligible population's choice in the vote.

Unaffiliated New Yorkers weren’t the only ones to be shut out this primary election, as 27% of voters were excluded from the Florida primary this week, too. And this is no small number. Florida has reported this month that there were 4.1 million unaffiliated voters, all of whom were excluded from a vote. 

That’s 8 MILLION voters in just two states who had no opportunity to vote for their choice of U.S. Representatives in what was the only election of consequence in their district.

That’s because 48 of those seats in Florida and New York are reliably safe for one party — meaning they will effectively be decided in this primary before a single vote is cast in November, and those voters will have no say in the general election where they are allowed to vote.

Primary déjà vu  — A redistricting mess forces NY’s second primary of the season 

The primary season in NY this year has had some unexpected twists and turns. The saga of this primary debacle began when an independent redistricting commission assigned to draw fair district lines effectively handed the job to the Democratic-controlled Legislature. In turn, the legislature then passed a set of maps in February that was widely seen as giving Democrats an unfair edge going into November’s midterms.

Due to this, the state’s highest courts ruled that district maps created by Democrats were unconstitutional and ordered them to be redrawn. That necessitated the primaries for U.S. House and state senate to be pushed back two months to August from June, leading to two NY primaries this season. (The only seats decided in the first primary were for governor, lieutenant governor, and members of the NY State Assembly.) One primary in the state typically costs between $40 million and $60 million, according to the Board of Elections’ co-chair. Two? Well, double the cost to taxpayers.

While the issues with redistricting and extreme gerrymandering took front and center stage in New York this midterm cycle, it wasn’t the only state to experience this problem. Nor is this problem just a Democratic issue. On the flip side of New York’s redistricting dispute, Florida Republicans were accused of doing the same thing to benefit their own interests. Democrats in Florida sued over the pro-Republican bias, which they claimed would create four new Republican-leaning seats at the expense of three highly competitive ones and lead to the dilution of Black voting power. However, this legal challenge was denied in court and the maps, as they were drawn, were used in this week’s election. 

Greatest (media) hits from the last week

As we wrote last week, this past Tuesday’s elections in Alaska were a milestone for elections that put voters first. And the public, including the national press, is beginning to catch on.

Check out these TV clips from MSNBC and Sinclair (serving dozens of local affiliates nationwide) featuring Unite America executive director Nick Troiano.

And then check out Nick’s interview about primary reform with CNN’s “What Matters” newsletter and a related story by Yahoo! News’s Jon Ward.

P.S. — Unite America is hiring! If you love what we are doing and are interested in joining our team, please check out our careers page to see our open positions.

Best Regards, 

Alana 
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Alana Persson
Unite America

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