Support for Alternatives to Closed Primaries and Partisan Redistricting: WtV’s Statement on Advocacy and Endorsement

Our mission at We the Veterans is to engage and empower the veteran and military family community to strengthen our American democracy.  We undertake this work in service of our vision of building a more perfect union.  We approach these efforts from a staunchly nonpartisan perspective, remain above the political fray, and focus on the foundational principles of our democracy.  Those principles include, but are by no means limited to, civic engagement built around an informed citizenry free to engage in open discourse, free and fair elections, maximization of the elective franchise, civil political discourse, and government that fairly represents its constituents.

Remaining nonpartisan and above the political fray demands restraint in our engagement on many issues of the day, especially where they are transitory, superficial, or involve individual political actors.  However, where matters materially bear on first principles and especially where pervasive and/or systemic, we are compelled to act.  Depending on the proximity to our mission, action may take the form of mobilization, endorsement, or advocacy.    

With these principles articulated above in mind, we conclude that alternatives to closed primaries and partisan redistricting are necessary for the health of our democracy, and We the Veterans formally supports the work of Vet the Vote coalition member Veterans for Political Innovation and endorses the legislation supported by the nonpartisan project Ballot PA to end closed primaries in Pennsylvania.

We are moved to these conclusions in large part by research.  According to the Pew Research Center, partisan polarization in Congress is at its highest today than at any time in the past 50 years and public trust in government, while up slightly from all-time lows in 2011, remains historically low at 20%.  At the same time, Congress has a near record-low approval rating of 17%, yet 95% of its members were re-elected in 2020.       

Open primaries, combined with voting innovations like ranked choice voting, along with commonsense, independent, transparent redistricting policies will re-enfranchise voters, realign representation, and reduce political division and dysfunction.  

Earlier this year Gallup confirmed that Independents are still the largest political group in the US - 42% of American voters identify as independent while virtually half of our fellow veterans do at 49%.  In 2020, in 10 states with closed primaries, nearly 11 million independent voters were prohibited from participating in primaries altogether.  Gerrymandering practices including “cracking” and “packing” put a thumb on the scale to manufacture outcomes that effectively nullify the will of voters.  Together, gerrymandering and partisan primaries yield “safe” districts where only voters of the dominant party have a say in who is ultimately elected.  As many as 94% of congressional districts may be considered “safe”, according to Dave Wasserman of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, denying voters of the non-dominant political party and independents in nearly all districts any real forum in which to have a say in the outcome.  Open primaries provide all voters the opportunity to vote for all candidates while independent redistricting will equitably redistribute voters so that the weight of their collective votes reflect their aggregate voting power.

In a heavily gerrymandered state, elected officials’ party affiliations will not correlate to the political preferences of the electorate.  Partisan primaries have lower turnout than general elections and, by definition, closed primaries exclude independents.  The partisan nature of a party’s primary electorate is usually not representative of the party generally, let alone the district at large.  According to Brookings research, primary voters self-identify as strong partisans and as either liberal or conservative, rather than moderate.  

According to Unite America, the result is that only 10% of eligible voters cast ballots in primaries that effectively elected 83% of Congress.  

With partisan primaries nearly always deciding the outcome of the general election, and primary voters being strong partisans, it’s no surprise when elected officials reflect the polar ends of the  parties’ respective bases.  This results in the real risk that fear of “being primaried” will drive representative’s behavior and legislative agenda, rather than their constituencies’ holistic preferences.  Within districts and across the nation, the result is all too often extreme polarization, officials out of step with the electorate at large, and resultant dysfunction driving increasing political unrest, undermining the health of our democracy.  

These practices endure in large part because partisans derive short-term benefits and for many of our fellow citizens, they’re seen as just how things are done.  But they needn’t be and we believe that solutions like open primaries, final five voting, and independent redistricting are viable alternatives that will produce better short- and long-term outcomes that more closely align with the will and preferences of the electorate, supporting a healthy, well-functioning democracy.  We believe we have an obligation to highlight and support these solutions and the organizations and initiatives championing them for the good of the country.  

In Service,

We the Veterans Society for American Democracy