Idaho SOS Announces that Open Primaries Initiative Has Officially Qualified for the November Ballot

The Idaho Open Primaries initiative will officially be on the November ballot as the Idaho Secretary of State's Office announced just this week that it has met all requirements. The office said that Idahoans for Open Primaries, the group behind the initiative, met the threshold of 62,895 petition signatures, which is 6% of total voters. The Secretary of State's Office was the final verification needed before it qualified for the ballot.

On July 2, the group lined up at the steps of the Idaho State Capitol, filled with about 97,000 signatures gathered across every county in the state. “It’s a tremendous achievement for our campaign. Over 2,000 volunteers worked to make this happen. They did it because they believe that all voters, regardless of party affiliation, should be able to participate in every Idaho election,” Idahoans for Open Primaries spokesperson Luke Mayville declared.

League of Women Voters Kentucky ENDORSES Open Primaries, Pursuing Open Primary Legislation in 2025

After a yearlong study, the Kentucky League of Women Voters, with the help and support of Open Primaries, released this official statement:

Some reasons the League is taking action now: 

1. 10% of Kentucky voters are independent and currently excluded
2. It’s not fair to exclude taxpayers in publicly funded primaries 
3. Open systems encourage participation from ALL voters
4. No evidence found for the chances of vote manipulation in states w/ open primaries.

In preparation for the 2025 Kentucky General Assembly, the League will be working with state legislators and the Secretary of State to draft and introduce legislation. Open Primaries will be working with them every step of the way!

Open Primaries friend and supporter Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes is on the front lines of so many of the core issues of the democracy movement: election integrity and denialism, the de-partisinazation of the election process, the exclusion of independents, the rise of Latino voters–the list goes on. Now, he may have also started a new primary reform trend when he recently donned a new hat!

An important new democracy reform organization has launched, Independent Veterans of America (IVA).

 Led by our good friend Paul Rieckhoff, the Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, IVA has an urgent and important mission: To organize the millions of politically independent and unaffiliated veterans in America into a powerful force for good. And get them elected. 

IVA is on a mission to unify a new generation of political leaders and we welcome them into the movement. Check them out HERE.

New support is rolling into Open Primary campaigns in Idaho and Arizona coming on the heels of both campaigns turning in their ballot qualifying signatures this past week.

ARIZONA: A powerful new piece in the Arizona Republic welcomes the Make Elections Fair Act and declares: “If passed, the initiative would blow up the awful way Arizona’s partisan primary elections are run and lead to the possibility that our general elections will include better candidates and — in a shocking turn for our democratic republic — become more competitive.”

The AZ campaign is continuing to get national attention, with a new expose in the Washington Examiner entitled Arizona group wants to give the power to independents with open primaries that features OP SVP Jeremy Gruber and OP President John Opdycke’s recent piece in The Hill.

FLORIDA: In 1998, voters approved an initiative with 64% of the vote that when candidates run unopposed in the primary, all voters can vote in what is the de facto general election. Subsequently, then Secretary of State Katherine Harris wrote in an opinion that write-in candidates registered as members of the party that isn’t fielding a candidate can close the primary. Political insiders of both parties have been openly and brazenly perpetuating this fraud on Florida voters for over twenty years. This week, one local journalist takes a deep dive into the very suspicious circumstances of a candidate this season whose entry into the race has closed the primary for a local county commission seat and explores accusations that he entered to close off the race to all non-Republican voters.

IDAHO: A call to arms in the Idaho Press suggests the new Open Primaries initiative would change politics as usual for the Gem State: “I am choosing to support the open primaries initiative because, if passed, it will force candidates to leave their own echo chambers. Rather than vying for the support of a very small group of die-hard party loyalists in a closed primary election, they will have to work for your vote.”

NEVADA: Thom Reilly, Professor & Co-Director of Arizona State University’s Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy, takes a deep dive this week into the changing political landscape in Nevada. From his lens as the former Chancellor of the Nevada System of Higher Education, Reilly explores whether the state’s growing polarization might break with its historic even handed approach to governing. His conclusion? “Nevada may remain a battleground state due to its political divide, but the rise of nonpartisan voters in the state may signal where the national electorate is heading.”

Meanwhile, the Las Vegas Sun recently brought together election experts in the state to explore a growing conundrum-the state’s voter rolls are growing and yet turnout is expected to continue to drop this November. Open Primaries Spokesperson and ED of Vote Nevada Sondra Cosgrove attributes this both to closed primaries and lack of voter education and declares: “Nevada’s civics education and voter outreach is failing its people.”

This week Let Us Vote shared the stories of Alix Johnson and Jim Kellar, independent South Dakotans that are shut out in the state’s closed primaries.

Alix and Jim are two of the 150,000 independent voters ignored in elections in South Dakota– South Dakota Open Primaries is hoping to change that this year. 

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REMINDER: We have $200,000 in matching gifts from two generous supporters–we have until the end of the month to raise $200,000 to ensure we can take full advantage of our matches and that we have built up our war chest as we head into the fall where we’ll be going to battle with partisan insiders dead set on maintaining the status quo and preventing these reforms from passing. 

QUICK CAMPAIGN UPDATE: In our first week, we’ve raised $56,290 towards our goal–28% of the way there! 

We have a chance this November to enact serious, meaningful reforms in multiple states that will have a major political impact for decades to come. 

Millions of more Americans would be granted the right to vote, and millions more will be freed from voting in partisan silos.  

Can you make a special gift right now for our campaign and help us do everything we can to pass every single open primary campaign on the ballot this year?

Thank you so much,

The Open Primaries Team