Not All Primaries Are Created Equal
Six systems. One question: who gets to vote?
The further right on this spectrum, the more voters can participate.
Unaffiliated voters can pick a party ballot. Registered members of other parties can't cross over.
Any voter can vote in any party's primary. No registration required.
Unaffiliated voters can pick a party ballot. Registered members of other parties can't cross over.
Any voter can vote in any party's primary. No registration required.
Only three states (California, Washington, and Alaska) have moved past the party primary model entirely.
In most of America, the primary is the real election. When one party dominates a district, whoever wins the primary wins the seat. Lock voters out of the primary, and you've locked them out of choosing their representative.
Meet the Voters Who Can't Vote
In 15 states, if you're not registered with a party, you don't get a primary ballot. Here's who that leaves behind.
More independents than 20 states have total voters.
Across these 15 states, more than 19.5M independent voters are shut out of primary elections.
Where Does Your State Fall?
Each dot is a state. The further right, the more of its voters are independent.
IVP Pioneered the Fix. Three States Proved It Works.
The nonpartisan primary puts every candidate on one ballot and lets every voter participate. No party registration required.
Election Day in a Closed Primary State
You arrive at the polls.
Are you registered with a party?
No → You don't get a ballot. Go home.
Yes → You get your party's ballot. Only your party's candidates.
Election Day in a Nonpartisan Primary State
You arrive at the polls.
Here's your ballot. Every candidate is on it.
Vote for whoever you want, regardless of party.
The top finishers advance to the general election.
IVP authored Proposition 14, the ballot measure that created California's nonpartisan primary.
First state to adopt the nonpartisan model.
Four advance, ranked-choice general.
In a closed primary, two separate party ballots, only registered members can vote. Independents get nothing. The candidates who advance are chosen by the smallest, most partisan slice of the electorate.
29% of all states use the most restrictive primary model.
They fund these elections with their tax dollars.
The largest voter bloc in America, and the one with the least access.
Frequently Asked Questions
A primary election is the first round of voting that narrows the field of candidates before the general election. In most states, primaries are organized by political party: each party holds its own primary to choose its nominee. In nonpartisan primary states, all candidates compete on a single ballot.
It depends on the state. In open primary states, any voter can participate regardless of party registration. In closed primary states, only registered party members can vote; independents are shut out entirely. Semi-closed states typically let unaffiliated voters choose a party primary, while keeping registered members of other parties from crossing over.
In an open primary, any registered voter can vote in any party's primary without being a member of that party. In a closed primary, you must be a registered member of a party to vote in its primary. The practical difference: in closed primary states, the tens of millions of Americans who register as independent cannot vote in the elections that often determine who holds office.
In a growing number of districts across the country, the general election is not competitive: one party dominates. That means whoever wins the primary wins the seat. When primaries are closed, a small group of partisan voters effectively chooses the representative for the entire district, including the independents who were locked out of voting.
A nonpartisan primary puts all candidates on a single ballot and lets every registered voter participate, regardless of party. Instead of separate Democratic and Republican primaries, voters choose from the full field. The top finishers advance to the general election. California and Washington use a top-two system; Alaska uses top-four with ranked-choice voting in the general.
The number varies depending on how you classify "open." Roughly 20 states have fully open primaries where any voter can participate in any party's primary. Another 10 or so have semi-closed or semi-open systems that give unaffiliated voters some access. Three states (California, Washington, and Alaska) have moved beyond the party primary model entirely with nonpartisan systems.
The Primary System Doesn't Have to Work This Way
IVP has been fighting to open primaries to every voter since 2010. We wrote the law that changed California. We're taking the fight to more states. You can help.
Stay in the fight.
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Primary election classifications and voter registration data sourced from L2 voter file (2026). Independent voter counts include unaffiliated, no-party-preference, and third-party registrations. Approximately 20 states use L2 modeled party estimates rather than official party registration data. Turnout figures based on voting-eligible population (VEP) from the UF Election Lab.