Currently, NYC has Closed Primaries in June each year. This means that only registered Democrats and Republicans can vote, and they are required to vote on separate party ballots. 

Having “Open Primaries” means that all candidates are listed on one single ballot. All voters, regardless of party registration, can vote — including the city’s 1 million Independents and small-party voters.

First up is the Primary Election: all candidates from all parties will be on one single ballot. And all voters will be allowed to vote on that ballot: even if you’re an Independent or small-party voter. You’ll pick just one candidate in the Primary.

All voters would be allowed to vote in the primary election and would get the same single ballot that all candidates appear on (with their party affiliation listed next to their name). This would be a “pick one” primary: you vote for just one candidate. Then, the top 5 vote-getters move on to the general election, where we’ll use Ranked Choice Voting to pick the winner.

Our proposal would simply move RCV to the general election instead of the Primary. This is a big improvement on the benefits of RCV, because everyone will be able to use it – not just the Democrat and Republican party primary voters. 

That’s what opponents to fair election reform will want you to believe, but New Yorkers are smart. We quickly adopted Ranked Choice Voting, and after first voting with it in 2021, 95% of New Yorkers found it easy to use. Open Primaries are no more complicated – in fact, it’s simpler to have all the candidates on one single ballot rather than forcing voters to register with a major party before an arbitrary deadline in order to be able to participate in the election. 

Yes! In fact, New York is behind the times. Only 9 other states still use Closed Primaries, and 22 of the 30 largest cities in the US already use Open Primaries. Washington, DC just enacted Open Primaries in 2024. 

No. In fact, we already use this system in our Special Elections. If you’ve ever voted in a Special Election in the city, you’d notice that all candidates, regardless of party, are on the same ballot, and anyone can vote for any candidate. We’ve been using this system for years and there’s never been an issue with tallying them (if anything, it’s simpler, because there’s only one single ballot instead of one for each party!). 

We have so many important issues facing our city right now – and who are the ones who are tasked with solving those issues? Our elected officials. There is no way to solve these problems without a system that allows us to pick strong leaders. Open Primaries will create more competition between candidates and force them to be held accountable to the true majority of voters, which leads to better solutions to the problems facing our city. tion