May 20, 2025
EXCITING NEWS FROM PA
Bill for Open Primaries Passes Key House Committee
PA is one of 15 states in the country that have closed primaries. Ballot PA has been working for many years to ensure 1.4 million independent Pennslyvanians have full and equal voting rights. This week the House State Government Committee advanced a bill that would open the primaries to independent voters! Next up is a vote before the full House.
Two independent PA veterans wrote very compelling and important editorials on the impact of closed primaries this week. Below are two key highlights from their columns with a link to the full articles so you can read more. Thanks to Dennis and Ed for their ongoing service to our democracy!
Dennis Miller in the Delaware Valley Journal
On the streets of New York City this week:
Open Primary and Let Us Vote activists were on the streets of NYC this week having conversations with fellow independent voters about the effort underway to open the primaries to 1.1 million independents.
Some of the common responses from voters about the closed primaries in NYC:
“Primaries should be open to all voters!”
“Closed primaries don’t make any sense!”
“This is unfair and perpetuates a toxic process.”
Stay tuned for more of their conversations. If you want to get involved in the effort in NYC, email Cathy Stewart at cstewart@openprimaries.org.
Open Primaries invites you to learn more about the effort underway in NYC to open the primaries to independents!
Six months ago, it seemed like New York City would hold on to its outdated Boss-Tweed-style-closed-primary-election-system forever. But then everything changed. New Yorkers spoke out and the recently appointed Charter Revision Commission listened. Primary reform is now squarely on the agenda in NYC – click here to read the Commission’s preliminary report.
Independents and reformers tried to bring open primaries to NYC in 2002, 2003, and 2010, but we were chewed up and spit out by an entrenched establishment. But as the number of independent voters soared (well past one million now, twice as many as Republicans) and voter turnout declined, new possibilities began to emerge.
On Wednesday May 28th at 11AM ET John Opdycke will sit down with John Avlon, an award-winning journalist, author, news anchor and media executive. He is a former CNN senior political analyst and anchor, editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast, and the 2024 Democratic congressional nominee in New York’s First District. He currently hosts a solutions journalism podcast on The Bulwark called “How to Fix It” and serves as the Chairman of Citizens Union, New York’s oldest good government group. John is a long time open primaries leader.
They will explore what’s changed, where we are in the process, and what a shift to open primaries could mean for NYC and the country.
Hi, Cathy here, project manager of Let Us Vote. I have an idea. I am starting a video conversation every other week with independent voters.
I am calling this The Independent Spotlight and I want to invite you to participate.
Here’s the deal. I am sick and tired of independents being ignored, misunderstood (if I hear that we are closet partisans one more time…) and here at Let Us Vote we want to change that narrative.
I believe independents have a lot to say. That we are the pathway forward for America.
We are less driven by partisanship, we are diverse and people need to get to know us!
So, every other week, I am going to spend a half hour with 3-4 independents. I am going to ask you a few questions and then we are going to post these videos all over our website, on social media, and you can share these videos too.
Do you wish more people respected independent voters? Would you like to have a conversation on zoom with me and a couple of other independents?
Sign up here and I will reach out to you and schedule a time for your visit to The Independent Spotlight.
