SUMMARY
- From Ballotpedia.com, “A primary election is an election used either to narrow the field of candidates for a given elective office or to determine the nominees for political parties in advance of a general election.”
- Only voters that are affiliated with a political party can vote and they can only vote in their party’s primary, this is known as a ‘Closed’ or ‘Partisan’ primary
- Approximately 37% of voters in New Jersey are not affiliated with a political party making them unable to vote in primary elections
- Only a small percentage of voters in New Jersey that are affiliated with a political party actually vote in primary elections (Only 17% of democrats and 26% of republicans voted in the 2022 primary elections, about 12.5% of the total number of registered voters in NJ)
- Primary campaigns are likely to be more narrow in scope and more extreme in nature
- Political parties are private organizations and their primaries are run by the state using public funds (aka, taxpayer dollars)
- There are different variations of ‘Open Primaries’, some allow any registered voter to vote for any candidate from either party while some have restrictions depending on party affiliation
- In general, Open Primaries allow more people to participate in primary elections and require candidates to present themselves in a more broadly appealing way to voters
- Open Primaries have the potential to limit the influence that party insiders, extremists, and big money donors can have on election outcomes
WHAT IT IS
Before we can discuss open primaries, let’s first look at the basics of what a primary election is and what practices are specific to New Jersey.
Imagine there is a general election coming and your party has to decide who will be their candidate. There might be many qualified people who want to be your party’s candidate in the general election but only one person can run against the other party’s candidate. To narrow down the group to one person, a ‘Primary’ election will be held where only members of your party will vote on who is best suited to represent them.
There are different types of primary elections but New Jersey uses a “Closed” primary where voters must be affiliated with a party in order to vote in that party’s primary. New Jersey voters that prefer to remain independent of any political party membership are officially referred to as “unaffiliated” voters.
In a practice that was illegal in New Jersey until the mid 1970’s, political party committees conduct their own limited selection processes to endorse candidates prior to the actual primary election. The endorsed candidate for each position will have an almost insurmountable advantage over all of the other candidates, partly because of a very favorable position on the ballot, referred to as “The county line”. In districts that heavily favor one party or the other, the endorsed candidate will very likely win the primary and then go on to also win the general election making the committee’s endorsement more important than the actual election. The committee’s endorsement essentially picks the winner before voters have had a chance to cast their votes leaving the candidates more beholden to party leadership than the voters.
Generally speaking, fewer voters participate in primary elections than in the larger general elections held in November and those that vote in primaries are generally more devoted to the party ideals and leadership.
The power of the party committee’s endorsement, the lower levels of participation in primary elections, the freedom to conduct primary campaigns that are heavily focused on a limited cross section of voters, and a system that uses public money while excluding a large percentage of voters…..these are all bad for New Jersey!
WHY OPEN PRIMARIES ARE GOOD FOR NEW JERSEY
This important fact is worth repeating, 37% of voters in New Jersey pay taxes that help fund primary elections but they can’t vote in them and will still be governed by whomever wins. Open primaries would allow all registered voters in New Jersey to participate making the process more competitive. With a larger number and a more diverse population of voters participating in primary elections, extreme candidates with limited platforms from either party will not do as well. Candidates that demonstrate an ability to communicate with and appeal to wider segments of the electorate will be more likely to work collaboratively with other lawmakers, even those from other parties, resulting in more effective solutions to complex problems. Better solutions benefit more New Jersey residents and ultimately lead to more efficient government by reducing the likelihood that policies and practices started by one party will be reversed when the other party takes over.
From a US Supreme Court case that intended to challenge the constitutionality of our closed primaries (but was never heard by the Supreme Court), “The natural consequence of New Jersey’s election process is […] the institutionalization of minority rule,” the coalition argued in their writ to the United States Supreme Court. “Indeed, the interests of the Republican and Democratic political parties are so embedded in the State’s establishment that the State of New Jersey finds itself here today defending a system that overtly and unnecessarily protects the private rights of two political organizations at the expense of the voting rights of its own citizens.”
CURRENT STATUS
At this time, the State of New Jersey legislature does not appear to be considering new laws to change how our primary elections are conducted.
LEARN MORE
https://ivn.us/2015/07/07/breaking-writ-to-scotus-says-closed-primaries-are-unconstitutional
https://ballotpedia.org/Primary_election
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3613994
NJ Primary 2022 Turnout; https://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/assets/pdf/election-results/2022/2022-official-primary-voter-turnout.pdf
NJ Voter Registration Data, Primary 2022; https://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/assets/pdf/svrs-reports/2022/2022-0607-voter-registration-by-county.pdf