President's Message

Open Primaries 2021 Media Hightlights

Open Primaries 2021 Media Highlights

1. 1. Taxation, voting and basic fairness: With non-citizen voting, the City Council just made the case for open primaries-OP President John Opdycke in the New York Daily News

   2. Andrew Yang says the two-party system fuels extremism: "The people are losing" -CBS News (VIDEO)

   3. Ensuring ‘free and equal’ elections calls for open primary initiative-OP Spokesperson Kevin Frazier in the Oregonian

   4. This Suggests Market Failure in Our Politics-John Avlon on CNN

   5. Want to help resolve American political dysfunction? Allow open primary elections. -Former PA Republican and Democratic Party Chairs Alan Novak and TJ Rooney in the Washington Post.

   6. Time Magazine: If We're Serious About Saving American Democracy, This Voting System Might Be the Key -Katherine Gehl and Jonathan Haidt

   7. Healthy democracy requires competition-OP Spokesperson Joe Kirby in the Rapid City Journal.

   8. Closed primaries disenfranchise millions of young people-Students for Open Primaries founder Elena Ashburn in IVN.

   9. Time to end closed primary process in Nevada-OP Spokesperson Sondra Cosgrove in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

   10. Fear and Retribution -Former FL legislators David Jolly and Patrick Murphy along with OP President John Opdycke on Smerconish.

   11. Open primaries long overdue in NY-OP SVP Jeremy Gruber and OP President John Opdycke in Times-Union.

   12. How an unholy bipartisan alliance would disenfranchise many Black Louisianans-OP SVP Jeremy Gruber & Debbie Hollis in The Fulcrum

   13. After Amendment 3 Failure, What's the plan for disenfranchised voters?-Florida Open Primaries, Jeff Solomon in the Orlando Sentinel

2020 Independents Report

A healthy democracy cannot discriminate against independent candidates and voters

Jared Alper, The Fulcrum

The eyes of the political world were locked in when the candidates for governor of Virginia stepped on the stage for a debate on Sept. 28. With the race between Republican Glenn Youngkin and Democrat Terry McAuliffe tightening, the table was set for a dramatic, head-to-head affair. However, by debate's end, the showstopper unexpectedly was another candidate for governor: Princess Blanding.

 

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VPI Bios

America’s Veterans Fight to Remake American Democracy Participant Bios:

Eric Bronner:

Founder & COO of Veterans for Political Innovation. Eric graduated with Honors from the United States Naval Academy in 1997. After college, he served on Active Duty for eight years as a Naval Flight Officer, Mission Commander, and Navy ROTC Recruiter and Instructor. Eric and his family moved to St. Louis in 2005, where he graduated cum laude from Washington University School of Law in 2009. After some time practicing law, and over seven years as a full-time real estate broker-agent, he’s pursuing his calling and deep passion - systematic political reforms--a champion for any political innovation that fosters a more competitive, better functioning democratic Republic. 

Todd Conner: 

Co-Founder and CEO of Veterans for Political Innovation, author of Third Shift Entrepreneur. He founded Bunker Labs (www.BunkerLabs.org) to help military veterans and their spouses start and grow their own businesses, and facilitate professional growth experiences through The Collective Academy. 

Yinka Faleti:

VFI Board member. He is a Nigerian-American politician and United States Army veteran who was the Democratic candidate for Missouri Secretary of State in the 2020 election. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the United States Military Academy at West Point and with a Juris Doctor from the Washington University School of Law.

He has previously worked as the executive director of the nonprofit Forward Through Ferguson, the senior vice president of United Way of Greater St. Louis, a state prosecutor at the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office, and a litigation attorney at international law firm Bryan Cave.

REGISTER FOR THE CALL

September 2021 Newsletter

What’s Happening? 

ICYMI: Maine’s legislature passed a historic open primaries bill--which will unlock the primaries to ALL Maine voters. The success of the Maine campaign was the product of a multi-year collaborative process between Open Primaries, Open Primaries Maine, elected officials, civic groups, party leaders, editorial boards, journalists, and citizens throughout the state to champion the right of all Maine voters to participate in primaries.

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CNN's John Avalon: "Change the rules, change the game."

CNN

Andrew Yang and Evan McMullin have left the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively, to run as third party candidates, and more than 40% of Americans are not registered to either of the two major parties. CNN's John Avlon looks at third parties in this Reality Check.

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Colo. Republicans decide to stick with 2022 primaries

written by Jesse Paul for The Coloradan Sun

Colorado Republicans on Sept. 18 rejected a contentious push to opt out of next year’s primaries, which would have blocked the state’s 1.7 million unaffiliated voters from helping to select the GOP’s 2022 general election candidates.

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Washington Post Opinion: Open primaries in Maryland would help end political divisiveness

Opinion from Drew Greenblatt for the Washington Post

There aren’t many industries out there in which your job performance has little to no impact on whether you keep your job.

As an owner of a manufacturing plant in Baltimore City, I can say with certainty that if any of my employees ever refused to do their jobs or antagonized their colleagues while refusing to work together, they’d be fired.

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Maine Report (2021)

Overview:

Open Primaries and Open Primaries Maine launched an effort in 2017 to enact semi-open primaries legislation. It passed after a multi-year campaign in June 2021. This report will shed light on this multi-year process and offer political reform advocates ideas and practical lessons learned that can be useful in other venues:

Key Takeaways:

Trust: Open Primaries staff spent several years on the ground in the state, building a presence and developing relationships. Similarly, Open Primaries Maine was constructed exclusively with local leaders who had deep roots in Maine and were known to/had relations with the legislature and political class.

Bill Sponsors: Initial bill lead sponsor and supporters were recruited from Maine’s unusual class of independent legislators. It was insufficient. A new lead sponsor, Chloe Maxmin, emerged from within the majority Democratic Party. She joined with a co- sponsor with similar standing in the minority Republican caucus. That bipartisan formula was critical, as it provided a bulwark against the claim the bill was being used to advantage one party over the other. The youth of both lead sponsors was also a key asset as both were seen as emerging leaders in their respective parties that needed their respective caucasus’ support. It also meant they were able to offer a significant amount of energy, connectivity and willingness to prioritize and work their caucuses for support.

Relation to other reforms: Reform was not new to Maine. Maine has recently adopted several new election reforms, from ranked choice voting to automatic voter registration. These reforms, which were developed by local campaigns, have helped create a legitimacy and receptiveness to new reform conversations both within and outside the legislature.

Collaboration inside the legislature: The development of open primaries legislation was not restricted to the lead sponsor and leadership of her caucus. It was developed with input from members of both the Republican and Democratic Party caucuses through a deliberative process that included multiple amendments. That process, which took opponent’s objections seriously, created a broad class of stakeholders and helped convert numerous opponents into supporters.

Collaboration outside the legislature: The Open Primaries and Maine Open Primaries teams were very complimentary-the national team brought a high level of understanding of the issues and experience of building coalitions/campaigns and stakeholders on it and the local team brought an understanding of the state’s legislative/political climate as well as extensive local relationships. The key to success, however, was not staying in our lanes. Both teams interacted on a regular basis to question each other and develop a grounded strategic plan.

Framing: From the beginning, this campaign was framed as a voting rights, pro democracy campaign. We did not use language such as fighting hyper- partisanship or anti-party. The campaign was framed as one of fundamental fairness-giving Maine’s sizable population of independent voters the right to vote.

Local validators: Every supporter of the bill, from within the legislature and from the public at large, was put to work. Every member of the legislature was asked to write an op-ed or letter in support and to recruit other members of their caucus. Every member of the public was asked to write articles and letters, join organized public forums to discuss the bill and post on social media. Much of that outreach was organized in a targeted way by the campaign-i.e. letters from the public to papers in districts where supporting members needed to be recruited, outreach to relevant committee chairs by members etc. Supporting organizations weren’t just recruited; the campaign worked to develop their organizational positions on the issue and their prioritization of the issues. Prime example is the ongoing development of the LWV from a position of “neither for nor against” open primaries to one of support, and then further to making open primaries their lead priority and committing substantial resources to it.

Long game: The successful campaign to enact open primaries in Maine took several years to complete. That was anticipated. We had to build a fertile climate within and outside the legislature to allow a bill for open primaries to succeed. Accepting the timeline required for enacting lasting reform allowed us to engage in a series of activities that gave Mainers ownership of the reform in a way that will guard against future attempts to alter or repeal it.

Read the full report: 

Unite NY Coalition Calls on Governor Kathy Hochul for Comprehensive Reforms in New York State

A Broad Coalition Calls for a Special Session to Pass Comprehensive Reforms that Put People Over Politics

(Governor Hochul) must push for term limits to reduce the odds of another executive believing that they are untouchable.”

— Larry Sharpe

 

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Students for Open Primaries

Maine 2021

MAINE

In an historic bipartisan vote, the Maine legislature passed a semi-open primary bill--LD 231--allowing independent voters---32% of all Maine voters-the right to pick a party ballot and vote in primary elections for the first time! 

In a year where many states considered rolling back voter rights and Congressional reform efforts fell victim to the partisan playbook, Maine offered a stark contrast. Sizable numbers of Republicans joined with a majority of Democrats to pass the bill 27-7 in the Senate and 92-52 in the House.  The legislation was championed by Senators Chloe Maxin (D) and Matthew Pouliot (R).  

Open Primaries and Open Primaries Maine began work on this issue in 2019.  A similar bill was introduced into the 2019 session but failed to pass.  After three years of sustained advocacy and public pressure, the bill passed by wide margins in both chambers.  

Several factors contributed to the passage.  There was significant turnover in the Maine legislature between 2019 and 2021, and the freshman class voted overwhelmingly in favor of letting independents vote in primaries.  There has been growing discussion about the growth in the number of independent voters in Maine, especially among veterans and millennial voters, and how their exclusion from round one of the electoral process was contrary to Maine’s culture of civic participation, innovation, and inclusion.  Senator Maxmin’s leadership was outstanding.  And the Open Primaries local and national teams put in sustained effort to broaden the coalition and secure organizational, leadership, and editorial endorsements.  

In celebrating the vote, Open Primaries President John Opdycke declared: “For many years, the attitude about independent voters has been that they should join a party if they want to participate.  That’s changing, in Maine and around the country.  Elected officials are starting to appreciate that independents want to participate but they don’t like the idea that you have to join a team in order to have a voice.   Letting all voters vote may sound simple, but it’s a profound component of what it will take to improve our politics.”   

The bill will be sent to the Governor for her signature.  It will take effect in 2024.  

Maine take bipartisan step forward to open primaries

Maine Voices: Use New Glue to Repair our Democracy

Read the Portland Herald endorsement of open primaries

Read the Ellsworth American endorsement of open primaries

Read the op-ed- A Case for Open Primaries

Summer 2021 Newsletter

Happy Independence Day weekend! Here’s a roundup of the Open Primaries activities and achievements that highlight the spirit of independence in the primary reform movement right now: 

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Spring 2021 Newsletter

What just happened?

Big news! Just this afternoon, the Maine Veterans and Legal Affairs Committee (a joint House/Senate committee) debated LD 231, the semi-open primaries bill.  They voted the bill positively out of committee with an "ought to pass" recommendation.

The bill’s chief sponsor Senator Chloe Maxmin declared:

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Independent voter registrations surge in Arizona as parties fall

written by  BROOKE NEWMAN for KTAR.com

WASHINGTON – The major political parties in Arizona have continued to lose voters since the November election, with strident partisanship “turning off” voters and driving them to register as independents, analysts said.

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A better way to vote?

written by Jared Garson for The Oregon Way

PORTLAND, Ore — The US could have chosen any other system to run elections, but somehow ended up selecting an option with numerous drawbacks: Plurality Voting. The current ‘pick one candidate’ system encourages voters to strategically choose a candidate that isn’t their first choice but is more likely to beat their least favorite choice. Plurality Voting is also vulnerable to the Spoiler Effect, which can swing an election with the entry of a popular third party candidate (see Nader in 2000).

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VOTER SUPPRESSION, MARYLAND STYLE

written by Len Lazarick for the Maryland Reporter

This is an expanded version of a column that appears in the August issue of The Business Monthly newspaper, serving Howard and Anne Arundel counties. 

The headlines are full of worries about mounting voter suppression in many states, such as Texas, Georgia, and Wisconsin. But Maryland has long had its own form of voter suppression that goes largely unnoticed.

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Judge says Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting system is legal

written by James Brooks for Anchorage Daily News

Alaska’s new ranked-choice voting system and top-four open primary are legal and may be used in the 2022 statewide general election, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Gregory Miller ruled Thursday.

 

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3 Reasons Open Primaries Would Transform American Politics

written by Katherine Hamilton for RepresentUS

How did only 10% of eligible Americans effectively elect 83% of Congress in 2020?

One word: Primaries.

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