Open Primaries

New York City’s partisan primary elections are closed to over a million unaffiliated voters—locking out a growing, young and diverse segment of the electorate. Opening the primaries would make our elections more inclusive, representative, and responsive to the full electorate.
New York City is an outlier – nearly all U.S. cities use a version of open primaries. But when only voters registered with a political party can participate in the most crucial election, mayors are effectively chosen by fewer than 10% of electorate in low turnout primaries. Unaffiliated New Yorkers, nearly half under 40 and majority are minority voters, are politically engaged and want to vote in primaries. Citizens Union is working to open up our closed primary system and strengthen New York City's democracy.