![\"Person](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/election-day-voting-2024-dean-moses-16.jpg\" "\\"Open")
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New Yorkers voting at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan on Election Day, Nov. 5, 2024.<\/p>\n
Photo by Dean Moses<\/p>\n
New Yorkers will not vote on whether the city should institute open primaries after a city panel announced Wednesday it would not put the measure on November ballots.<\/p>\n
The proposal would have allowed all voters, regardless of party affiliation, to vote in a \u201cjungle primary\u201d of all candidates, in which the top two vote-getters advance to the general election. The Charter Revision Commission, a 13-member body empaneled by Mayor Eric Adams to consider amendments to the City Charter, considered the proposal alongside five other measures it is expected to advance to voters.<\/p>\n
Currently, all primary elections in New York are restricted to registered members of a political party. The recently completed June 24 Democratic primary<\/a>, for instance, was limited only to registered Democrats and decided the party\u2019s nominee for mayor. The Republican Party did not have a mayoral primary but held primaries for other city seats open only to registered Republicans.<\/p>\n Commission Chair Richard J. Buery said in a statement that there was not enough consensus among commissioners, experts and city leaders to consider the open primaries proposal.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope civic leaders will build on the progress that we have made this year, develop greater consensus and advance a proposal to voters prior to the next citywide election,\u201d Buery said.<\/p>\n The commission\u2019s interim report, released July 1, suggested<\/a> open primaries as a way to increase voter turnout. Proponents argued the proposal would enfranchise many voters who are not affiliated with a political party, who are overwhelmingly Black and Latino.<\/p>\n But a coalition of city leaders and civic organizations \u2014 including both progressive politicians and Republicans \u2014 said open primaries favor establishment candidates and effectively usher in one-party rule.<\/p>\n Ana Mar\u00eda Archila and Jasmine Gripper, co-directors of the progressive Working Families Party, celebrated the commission\u2019s decision, saying \u201cbillionaires failed to buy New York\u2019s primary system.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s no coincidence that after a historic primary win for working New Yorkers, the rich and well-connected attempted to twist our electoral system in their favor \u2014 but organized people fought back against their attempts to diminish our power,\u201d Archila and Gripper said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n Some civic leaders, including L. Joy Williams, New York state president for the national civil rights group NAACP, argued the commission was rushing the process, even if the idea of open primaries had merit.<\/p>\n \u201cAmending our primary system can still be done smartly,\u201d Williams co-wrote<\/a> with another civic leader last week. \u201cBut rushing such a substantive change on the ballot creates unnecessary division.\u201d<\/p>\n Recent political trends in New York \u2014 where registered Democrats vastly outnumber registered Republicans \u2014 make the winner of any Democratic primary the heavy favorite in the November general election. Since Republicans and independent voters cannot vote in the Democratic primary, they are left out of much of the electoral decision-making.<\/p>\n City Comptroller Brad Lander testified at the commission\u2019s final public hearing<\/a> that the current primary system has worked for New York, and implied that the proposal was only being considered because of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo\u2019s recent loss in the Democratic mayoral primary.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s democracy as we have practiced it here for generations,\u201d Lander said at the meeting, referring to traditional primaries. \u201cBut now it appears some people \u2014 for whom the race didn\u2019t go the way they wanted \u2014 want to change the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n