Capital Tonight Spot on Primary Turnout and Reform

Did you catch our Executive Director Tim Dunn on Capital Tonight? Here he is talking low primary turnout, voter frustration and reforms that could help fix both!

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BY KATE LISA I ALBANY

PUBLISHED 8:57 PM ET JUL. 01, 2024 Good-government groups want New York lawmakers to open up the state's primary elections after unofficial results from last week's primary show less than a quarter of eligible voters participated across the state. An average of 15% of voters in each district participated in 44 local, state and federal primary
contests last Tuesday, according to state Board of Elections data. New York's primaries are closed, meaning only voters registered in a political party can vote in
that party's race - legally excluding about 3.4 million voters off the bat. "The turnout of this last primary is embarrassingly low," said Timothy Dunn, executive director of
Unite NY. "We're one of only 10 states with a completely closed primary process."