Depending upon the survey, somewhere between one-third and one-half of American voters identify themselves as independents or members of a third political party. But in many states, those who have registered as independents are locked out of the primary election process.
Five states — including Washington — have truly open primaries in which candidates from all parties appear on the primary ballot, with the top two vote-getters advancing to the general election. Several other states have primary systems that allow for cross-party voting with some caveats.
A bipartisan bill co-sponsored by Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, would expand that system. The Let America Vote Act of 2024 would require states to adopt open primaries for federal and state elections.
“Good ideas come from both sides of the aisle, so Americans shouldn’t be denied the right to vote for the candidate of their choosing because they aren’t affiliated with a political party,” Perez said in introducing the legislation in July.
Nick Troiano, executive director of Unite America, which supports election reform, said: “By abolishing closed primaries nationwide, the Let America Vote Act represents the single greatest expansion of voting rights in a half-century, since the 26th Amendment lowered the voting age in 1971.”
To Washington voters, all of this might sound like a solution in search of a problem. For more than a decade, we have not registered by party affiliation and have been allowed to vote for the best candidates regardless of party in primary elections. But common sense and academic studies suggest that partisan primaries contribute to political polarization. The system encourages extremism on both sides, often leaving centrist candidates without a political home in primary elections.
Jeremy Gruber, senior vice president for advocacy group Open Primaries, told NPR: “You are starting to see states that shut out independent voters have primary elections that are more and more insular and are producing candidates that are less and less representative because fewer and fewer people are able to participate in them. And that’s throwing the whole system of democracy in elections out of whack.”
Whether Washington’s open primaries avoid that problem is open to debate. But the issue reflects a necessary rethinking of the nation’s election process.
There likely is nothing that can be done to change the archaic Electoral College for presidential elections. That would require approval from 38 states, and it is not in the interest of small states to abolish the system.
But other adjustments, in addition to open primaries, have drawn support. In one example, Washington voters would be wise to watch the November election in Portland. There, for the first time, ranked choice voting will be implemented, with voters ranking multiple candidates for city offices.
A 2022 proposal for ranked choice voting in Clark County was rejected by 58 percent of voters (The Columbian editorially argued against the proposal). But Portland’s experiment this year likely will offer additional insight.
Meanwhile, term limits often are viewed as a fix for what ails American politics, and Republicans often push for citizenship requirements for voters. To be clear, citizenship is required to vote in state and federal elections; a few jurisdictions allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.
Whether or not the Let America Vote Act of 2024 eventually passes Congress, discussions about how we choose our elected leaders are an important part of a functioning democracy.
