Testimony to the NYC Charter Revision Commission: Four Out of Five Support Open Primaries in NYC

This testimony will focus on the overwhelming support for open primaries among all NYC voters. Most significantly, the most recent in our organization’s Voter Empowerment Index, a quarterly poll, found that 80 percent of New Yorker City residents favor an open primary system that allows all voters to participate in the primary process. 

On behalf of Unite NY, I provide this data so that it might help the Commission decide whether or not to place a question on the ballot to establish open primaries in New York City, allowing every registered voter to participate fully in the democratic process.

The Commission has received a lot of testimony from those in favor of this proposal, including from Unite NY staff and some of the more than 15,000 supporters in our network. The data submitted below shows that support is more broad than just those the Commission has already heard from.

This wide public support spans party affiliations, race, generation, gender, boroughs, and other demographics.

More than 1 million independent voters are effectively disenfranchised from taxpayer-funded primaries because they choose not to enroll in one of the two major parties. This discrepancy undermines fairness and dilutes the democratic principle of equal representation.

Under closed primaries, very often less than ten percent of registered voters decide the outcome of elections. This favors party insiders and special interests while discouraging broader civic engagement. Closed primaries also incentivize candidates to speak to the loudest constituency among factions of a party, rather than the entire constituency.

It’s clear from the data, the people of New York City want open primaries.