Gotham Gazette

The Place for New York Policy and politics

open primaries

open primaries

  • After Another Low-Turnout, Uncompetitive Mayoral Election, Renewed Calls for Nonpartisan Elections that Eric Adams Once Supported

    after expressing sup

    Mayor-Elect Eric Adams (photo: @ericadamsfornyc2021)


    When Mayor Michael Bloomberg put the prospect of nonpartisan or "open" primary elections before voters in 2003, Eric Adams was a vocal supporter of the shift. This year, when Adams narrowly won the Democratic primary and, in part thanks to Democrats' overwhelming voter enrollment advantage, sailed to victory in the general election to become the next mayor himself, he's been much quieter on the topic. That's because he no longer supports it.

    When asked in a questionnaire from good

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  • The Conspiracy in Queens is Beyond the DA Ballots

    votes president us cast 2016

    (photo: Edwin J. Torres/Mayoral Photo Office)


    Election officials in Queens are counting ballots in the District Attorney Democratic primary recount exactly as the law prescribes -- and it is an injustice for Queens and an affront to democracy. 

    After a stunning reversal of fortune that saw Melinda Katz erase a 1,090-vote gap after absentee and other ballots were counted, Tiffany Cabán is challenging the rejection of a small number of provisional ballots that she thinks will turn the tide back in her favor.  While there are many

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  • Open Primaries and Overcoming the Racial Divide the Parties Prop Up

    city hall statue

    (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)


    Today the dominance of the two major parties has frozen the country’s political development along a racial divide: the Republican Party uses law and order, tax cuts and anti-immigrant rhetoric to capture white voters, and the Democratic Party depends on high black voter turnout to win elections, while failing to address the ongoing inequality between people of color and white people. Pollster Cornell Belcher has found that 63% of black people feel taken for granted by the Democratic Party. The current

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  • Closed Primaries are Less Inclusive than Soviet Era Politics

     

    kaminsky voting april 2016

    State Senator Kaminsky voting


    I grew up in a country where most elections were fixed, voting made no difference, and the political process was a dull affair run by a party whose politics were as odious as its leaders. In that country I was able to live and vote without joining the aforementioned party, although I had to withstand poll workers knocking on my door until I exercised my civic right and duty.

    This past March, living in a country that prides itself on its democracy, I had to join a party in order to

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  • New York Primaries are Closed, Repetitive and Costly

    cuomo voting 2015 machine

    Gov. Cuomo votes in 2015 (photo via Governor's Office)


    In April, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump won the Democratic and Republican New York presidential primaries, respectively. New York has a well-publicized and worsening voter turnout problem, and approximately one in four registered New York voters could have no say in the presidential primary outcomes even if they wanted to - other than by changing their party affiliation more than a year prior.

    New York is one of only ...