Tuesday is primary day in New Mexico, and it'll be the state's first ever semi-open primary. Cathy Stewart is the national organizing director with the nonprofit group Open Primaries and she joined KSFR News with more on the state's new primary system.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
KSFR: For clarification, what is the difference between a closed primary, open primary and a semi-open primary?
Cathy Stewart: So, in an in a semi-open primary, which is what we now have in New Mexico, independent or decline-to-state voters can go to the polls on primary day and pick a party ballot. Democrats, Republicans and minor parties that are certified stay in their lane. But it allows independent voters to participate. In a closed primary, which we have in 17 states, idependent voters are barred from voting in the primaries—publicly funded primaries that their taxpayer dollars help fund, but they cannot participate in them.
When people say a "fully open primary" they're referring to a nonpartisan primary, which is where all the candidates appear on one ballot - Democrats, Republicans, independents, Greens, you name it. They're all on one ballot for each office, and all voters get the same ballot. And that is the case in only three states right now, California, where it's under attack. Alaska, also under attack, and Washington state. Although that form of elections is used in most of our major US city elections.
Why in New Mexico specifically was there this big push to change to the semi-open system?
That's a really important question. That change came about after a decade-long effort across the state. The reason for that is that the fastest growing group of voters in the state are independent voters, or decline-to-state voters who are not affiliated with any political party right now. That's 378,000 voters, it's 26% of all voters in New Mexico. And here's something very interesting to understand—it's 82% of all the new voters that have registered since the summer. So it comes down to wanting a primary system that reflects the full will of the voters. As long as primaries are publicly funded, it is our belief at Open Primaries that no American should be forced to join a party to vote. So, this effort took 10 years with lots of twists and turns. We've been involved since day one. There was an attempt at litigation. There were many legislative attempts along the way. Then last year a very vibrant coalition came together, and we were able to pass a bill to create this historic new primary structure of a semi open primary in the state.
But we know that changing the laws is is not the only thing that needs to be done to make real change on the ground. So, in your view, did the state and counties do enough outreach to make sure that this growing segment of unaffiliated voters is aware of the change?
The answer is "no," and let me say a couple things about that. First of all, just a handful of days before early voting started, most county clerk websites, which is where a lot of voters go for information on voting, did not have updated notices telling decline-to-state voters that they had this new voting right. And then the mailers that were sent out by the county clerks were very ineffective. You basically needed a magnifying glass to find the section for decline-to-state voters. It was very generic, and there was nothing to say to a decline-to-state voter, "Hey, you have a new voting right, something you've never had before."
What you have to think about here is that this is a huge cultural shift. You have a grouping of voters that historically in the state has been excluded and marginalized for generations. I don't think the public education effort has been adequate enough from our elected officials and county clerks, and that's actually why we stepped in, and and a whole network of organizations on the ground did as well. What we did is we began to do a media campaign, a texting campaign and a direct outreach campaign that was all in the voice of independent voters reaching independent voters to tell them that they had this new voting right, and I think that that's been very, very important.
Going back to the previous question regarding if the state and the counties did enough—do you have any inkling why that may be? Is it lack of manpower? They simply didn't have enough resources to make an update, or is it some sort of concerted effort to keep Democratic and Republican voters stronger than independent voters?
Actually, I really hope that you will ask the Secretary of State and the county clerks to speak to that. I can't speak to motivation here, I do think that overall the system is not set up to welcome full participation by independent voters, even when you've made the switch to a semi open primary system. We have a long way to go to fully recognize that there's a shift going on in American politics right now, and that shift is away from parties and towards independent voters. 45 percent of Americans now describe themselves as independent, and I think in many ways the political system is hostile to that change.
When other states have changed from a closed to an open or semi-open primary, have you seen an increase in voter turnout in those states?
Yes. If you look at California, you see that in general when you open the system, it does attract more voters, and also those voters go on to participate in November, so you begin to see a boost there as well. It's also, it's also the case that this is going to take some time, because it is a profound change, and many independent voters may not even know that they can come out and vote.
You can visit the Secretary of State's Voter Information Portal to find a polling place near you.
