Open Primaries

Oklahoma’s primary election system is controlled by two major parties, and they get to choose which voters they want to allow to vote in their primary elections. However, nearly 20% of Oklahoma voters are not affiliated with either of the two largest parties, which means hundreds of thousands of registered voters do not get to vote for the candidate of their choice. This is even more problematic because when all candidates in a race are from the same party, then there is no general election—the winner is decided in the primary. And half the voters didn’t even get to vote!

We believe all Oklahoma voters should be allowed to vote in every election, regardless of whether they are registered with a particular party or not. What matters more is the candidate’s party affiliation, which is why it’s listed on the ballot. All public elections—including primaries—are paid for with taxpayer dollars; political parties shouldn’t be allowed to use our money to run their private popularity contests.