There's Magic in An Open Primary System

Posted by Cathy L. Stewart on January 09, 2024 at 12:51 PM

John Opdycke - Fulcrum

December 29th, 2023

John Opdycke is the founder and president of Open Primaries, a national advocacy organization working to enact and protect open and nonpartisan primaries and enhance the visibility and power of independent voters. This monthly column will offer John’s insights about how a people-powered, non-ideological democracy movement can be most effective in revamping our political process and culture to meet the needs of a complex and ever changing 21st century landscape.

“Oh and by the way, that’s the magical key to democracy. It’s talking to people you don’t necessarily agree with.” — Paul Johnson, former mayor of Phoenix

Welcome to Brash Tacks, a new monthly column I’m writing for The Fulcrum. Brash in that I will try my best to ruffle a few feathers and not to be predictable. Tacks in the nautical sense of navigating shifting winds. I’ve been an independent democracy activist for 30 years and have learned a bit about both.

My goal with this column is to offer notes about how a people-powered, non-ideological democracy movement can be most effective in revamping our political process and culture to meet the needs of a complex and ever changing 21st century landscape. Despite the best efforts of an increasingly unhinged partisan establishment to limit our growth and our impact, we are in a great position to punch above our weight in 2024. While the media will be obsessed with the presidential horse race (okay, most of us will be obsessed with the horse race) there are going to be so many opportunities to change the rules of the game in 2024. And changing the rules of the game has never been more important.

I had a great discussion last week with Paul Johnson, the former mayor of Phoenix. Paul is the co-founder of Save Democracy Arizona and Make Elections Fair Arizona, a left/center/right campaign to enact nonpartisan open primaries in Arizona via ballot referendum. Paul and his growing team have raised $5 million and are laser focused on gathering the 400,000-plus signatures they need to appear on the 2024 ballot. They are putting forth a bold and innovative policy that combines nonpartisan primaries for state and federal primaries with a “no more taxpayer funding for presidential primaries unless independents are allowed to participate” clause. It’s a very innovative approach.

Paul hosts a podcast called the Optimistic American – and that’s what he is. If you are ever feeling glum just listen to him for 15 minutes and you’ll want to hug your family, read up on Abraham Lincoln and start a business! He is also one of the most articulate spokespeople in the country for open primaries and responsive government. He’s so good because he’s run for office in a nonpartisan open system (Phoenix city council and mayor) and in a partisan system (governor of Arizona) and he knows intimately how the rules of the system impact how candidates campaign and how they govern. He’s a fan of open primaries because they force politicians to campaign to all the voters, not just their fellow partisans. That’s the magic of an open system, as opposed to the illusion of choice and participation in a closed system.

Watch our full conversation:

The fear factor and winning the independent voter

Posted by Cathy L. Stewart on January 03, 2024 at 11:13 AM

By Adam Brandon - Real Clear Politics

Friday, December 29, 2023

Voter trust and fear over the 2024 election are driving unprecedented interest in independent voters. The candidate who can address these fears, whether that candidate is President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump, will go on to win. With only a handful of states up for grabs, they need the independent vote.

Winning independent voters is going to be a challenge. What’s more worrying for America is that a majority of Pennsylvania and Arizona “first-time voters” (voters aged 18-24) are “scared” for the well-being of our country if either Trump or Biden is elected. But they see bipartisanship, or a politician who works across both sides of the aisle, as the only option that gives them some promise of security.

In a recent Bullfinch poll conducted in two of the likely 2024 battleground states, 54% of voters from Arizona and 52% from Pennsylvania felt their best representative would be a politician who works with both sides of the aisle. In fact, the data shows that in a toss-up state like Pennsylvania, 51% of self-identified Democrats and 45% of self-identified Republicans prefer a candidate who works with both sides of the aisle over a candidate who works and votes only with their party.

The problem these voters have is one of trust. There is little indication that either the Democrats or Republicans can convince independent voters they can be trusted.

In Arizona, 66% of Democrats, 22% of independents, and 6% of Republicans trust that Biden and his administration would address the key issues that matter most to the respondent and their neighbors.

In Pennsylvania, 70% of Democrats, 31% of independents and just 9% of Republicans trust Biden and his administration to address key issues that matter most to them and their neighbors.

Independent voters nationwide, like most voters, don’t feel anyone is listening to them, further eroding their trust. They feel the issues they care most about are not being addressed. They believe that the country has never been in a worse position than it is today. In a recent survey by the Independent Center, 66% feel their representative in Washington, D.C., is not listening to their voice and concerns, yet 49% believe a non-aligned independent representative would more clearly represent them.

With this as the backdrop to the 2024 presidential election, it’s hard to imagine how anything good can come from the contest.

All of this attention on the independent voter is positive. Never before have so many voters indicated they want another option, a better option. Recent polling from a Harvard CAPS-Harris survey shows Robert Kennedy Jr. with the highest favorability rating of all 2024 presidential candidates. This is also represented by the emergence of Nikki Haley, who is attracting and winning independent interest. Independent voters are hungry for choices and interested in hearing what they say.

This is what needs to happen. After partisan gamesmanship, gerrymandering and policy positions that purposely seek to divide Americans against each other, we might finally be turning the corner. This means a focus on bipartisan compromise, a position that can win the independent voter, especially in the swing states.

To win the swing states and their deep pool of independent voters, it’s going to be a contest of which party and which candidate demonstrates they understand the issues independent voters care about. This is the key to regaining trust, but it is no easy feat.

Refusing to acknowledge the issues and their importance to the independent voter is the first problem. Pretending we don’t have an immigration problem is not going to work, nor is denying the need to restructure Social Security before it goes bankrupt.

Everyone is talking about independent voters, but not many have taken a deep dive to understand who they are and what they believe.

Independent voters are as diverse as our country. They care about immigration and social reform, government and debt, inflation, and education. The research is clear: They care personally about jobs and social reform, but their position on abortion will determine their vote. This will make it hard for Republicans in the current environment. However, when asked, the issue they want to see their local candidates focus on most is affordability, a traditional Republican strength.

Both Democrats and Republicans can find opportunities — these voters aren’t exactly radical. These voters want innovative commonsense policies. They want others to tolerate their differences while finding common ground to move ahead. They want policies and positions that offer choices so they can exercise their free will to make a difference on issues by choosing what paths are best for themselves, their families and their communities. They don’t want to be told there is only one way to address climate change or reform health care or government services. They are rejecting the extremism of both parties.

The candidate who wants to win independent voters needs to start listening. Conquering fear is going to mean change and is going to require some brave positions from both parties. The candidate who shows they are up for the challenge of rejecting extremism, reaching across the aisle, and having adult conversations with these voters can win.

Adam Brandon is the president of FreedomWorks and co-author of “America in Perspective: Defending the American Dream for the Next Generation.”

This loss is actually a win for the effort to open Arizona primary elections

Posted by Cathy L. Stewart on December 21, 2023 at 12:46 PM

azcentral - This loss is actually a win for the effort to open Arizona primary elections

Opinion: The demise of one proposal to open Arizona's primary elections to all candidates and voters should help a like-minded ballot initiative.

By Abe Kwok, Arizona Republic

Published Dec. 20, 2023

With a similar election reform measure out of the way, voters now have a clearer choice in 2023. Dragon Claws, GettyImages/iStockphoto

The decision to halt a citizen-led initiative to adopt open primary elections and ranked choice voting is, oddly enough, a bigger loss for its opponents than supporters.

In bowing out, backers of Better Ballot Arizona pave the way for a kindred initiative to make its case with voters.

And a better one at that.

The abandoned effort was strikingly similar to an initiative that remains in the running, Make Elections Fair Arizona.

Both measures did similar things

Both seek to:

• establish open primaries.
• set the same minimum number of nominating signatures for all candidates.
• allow ranked choice voting that comes into play when no candidate garners a majority of the vote.
• force the presidential preference elections to open up to all voters if they’re to remain taxpayer funded.

Both drew the ire of Republican state lawmakers, who voted to refer a measure to voters that would keep primaries closed.

(Republicans bristle most at the complaint that the current primary system produces extreme partisans, even if that’s evident by the present makeup of the Legislature and recent party nominees for other offices.)

Now, voters will have a more binary choice

With the departure of Better Ballot Arizona, it sets up a binary choice for voters next November:

• Vote for Make Elections Fair and create a single primary election in which all candidates may run, regardless of political affiliation, and all voters are allowed to participate.
• Or embrace status quo and support the legislative referred initiative that requires primary elections to remain partisan affairs, accessible only to party members.

The stark choice is favorable to election reformers, whether they more ardently favored Better Ballot Arizona or Make Elections Fair.

Make Elections Fair is the more smartly constructed (and funded) of the two.

That’s exhibited by its simplicity and flexibility in enacting an open primary.

The measure:

• allows for two to five candidates with the most votes in an open primary to advance to the general election.
• leaves it largely up to state lawmakers to implement ranked choice voting rather than to outright mandate it, as Better Ballot Arizona did.

Make Elections Fair is the better option

By doing so, Make Elections Fair adroitly sidesteps having to get mired in the particulars of ranked choice voting or to educate and persuade voters about the nitty gritty details.

(Better Ballot Arizona, for instance, set conditions on when a ranked choice ballot would be disqualified, including the number of skips in a voter’s rankings of candidates.)

Make Elections Fair also gives the GOP-led Legislature the responsibility of drafting the process and procedures to execute ranked choice voting.

That may be a small selling point with Republican voters, who are the most skeptical toward open primaries, according to polling by the political consultant group HighGround, a principal backer of Make Elections Fair.

But solidifying support wherever it can be found can’t hurt.

Polling suggests support (and skepticism)

Polling indicates majority support for the open primaries initiative, but it also shows support, by a slimmer margin, for the competing initiative offered up by GOP lawmakers.

Expect the Make Elections Fair side to campaign vigorously that open primaries strengthen voter choice and election fairness — themes that have tested well across the political spectrum in surveys.

That includes allowing independents, who now outnumber both Republicans and Democrats, to vote without first having to request one of the two parties’ ballots.

It’s one of open primaries’ many winning arguments.

Voters should be more readily able to hear and act on them with Better Ballot Arizona out of the picture.

Reach Abe Kwok at [email protected]. On Twitter: @abekwok.