'Going to really make a sea change': These 6 states may overhaul their 2024 primary process

30 December 2023

As the first 2024 presidential primary contests approach, several states — including states whose Electoral College votes have decided the past two presidential elections — are looking to dramatically reshape how they conduct primary elections.

NBC News reported Saturday that six states — Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Oregon — are currently mulling ways to engage more voters in typically lower-turnout primary elections. One increasingly popular idea is to scrap closed primaries, where only registered members of a party are able to vote in that party's primary. While some states are proposing a single primary in which all registered voters participate, others are considering opening up partisan primaries to independent voters.

Here is a full list of all the states considering changes to their primary election process:

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Arizona

According to NBC, the group Make Elections Fair Arizona is pushing to have a constitutional amendment ballot referendum next year to overhaul its primary process. If successful, the amendment would replace the state's current primary system in which independent voters can cast a ballot in either party's primary with a single nonpartisan primary open to all voters.

The Arizona legislature has already put two measures on the 2024 ballot to enshrine partisan primaries in the state constitution, and to ban ranked choice voting, in which voters can rank their preferences rather than be forced to just choose one option.

"Our campaign is going to be, 'Hey, if you like how it’s going, vote for them. If you don’t like how it’s going, vote for us,'" political consultant Chuck Coughlin, who is working on the campaign, told NBC. "We are the change, they are the status quo for sure."

Idaho

Like Arizona, another group in the Gem State is seeking to change Idaho's primary process via ballot referendum. The group Idahoans for Open Primaries is organizing a campaign to get 63,000 registered Idahoans — as well as Idaho residents from 18 of the state's 35 legislative districts — to sign a petition to put a question on the ballot that would give Idaho a single nonpartisan primary and allow for ranked-choice voting. The group hopes to get 100,000. signatures by the state's May deadline.

Jim Jones, who is a Republican former attorney general and supreme court justice in the Gem State volunteering for the campaign, said open primaries and ranked-choice voting will help to loosen the far right's grip on the state GOP.

"“It was the only way I could see that we could straighten out Idaho politics,” he said. “The Republican Party primary was closed in 2012, and ever since that, the legislature has gone further and further to the right... It’s going to really make a sea change in Idaho politics.”

Nevada

In 2022, Nevada voters passed a ballot measure that put the state on a path to open its primaries and implement ranked-choice voting in all statewide general elections. If it passes again in 2024, the Silver State will have a single nonpartisan primary in all federal, statewide and legislative elections, and ranked-choice voting available for November general elections.

Ohio

The Buckeye State is the only one of these six states considering a measure that would make its primaries more restrictive. The National Conference of State Legislatures shows Ohio has a semi-open primary in which voters can cross party lines in a primary provided they register their ballot choice publicly. However, a new bill under consideration would institute a closed primary system where voters have to affiliate with a party a year prior to a primary election.

Oregon

The group All Oregon Votes is hoping to pass a ballot initiative in 2024 that would open up the state's primaries to unaffiliated voters. In order to pass, organizers need to submit 160,000 petition signatures to the state for consideration.

"I don’t think we’re going to create a better future and realize the potential of our state unless we are fully including every single eligible voter in elections," Michael Calcagno, who is chair of the All Oregon Votes committee, told NBC.

Pennsylvania

Primaries in the Keystone State are already set to open up for 2024 after the Pennsylvania legislature passed two bills this year that allow the state's approximately one million unaffiliated voters to participate in primaries. Ballot PA chair David Thornburgh supported the legislation, saying he hoped open primaries will lessen partisanship in the state.

"The more ugly the partisan warfare becomes, the more turned off people are," Thornburgh said.

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