Top Of Mind With Julie Rose

Open, Partisan or Closed Primaries – The Quest to Fix Primary Elections

Informações:

Sinopsis

Nearly a dozen states have active campaigns to move away from partisan or closed primaries, motivated by a frustration among many voters that the way parties choose nominees in high-stakes elections is broken. By the time most of us cast a ballot in a Presidential Primary, it feels like a pointless exercise: earlier states have already winnowed the field to a clear front-runner. No wonder turnout for primary elections is so low! But here’s the thing: In 2020, the majority of Congressional and state legislative seats in the US were decided in the primary; because voting districts have been gerrymandered to favor one party so heavily, whoever wins that party's primary sails to victory in the general. Why don't more of us vote in primaries? Does weakening the power of political parties to control who runs and who votes in a primary election improve turnout and engagement? In this episode of the Top of Mind podcast, we explore the origins of primary elections and variation between states. We speak with an incu