Closed primaries have broken NYC politics 89%
By J.C. Polanco100%
7/17/2026, 9:00:06 AM
Topics: Political Science, Civic Engagement
BS Summary: This article contains 26 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Confirmation Bias, and Post Hoc (False Cause), with Ambiguity (Equivocation) as the most egregious example at 41.9% saturation with 252 hits. Analysis detected 1,590 faulty-reasoning hits from 602 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 82.9% and a BS Rank of 89% (1,984 of 17,602 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 88.70% of the article peer group.
New Yorkers want safe streets, reasonable taxes, and good schools.
Yet millions of New Yorkers who reject party labels are excluded from the elections that often matter most.
It is clear that because the elections that decide who represents us in government are actually decided in a closed June primary, we in New York live in a democracy in name only.
Whoever wins the primary determines the policies that affect our well-being, our children’s schooling, our safety, and our taxes.
That should not allow a tiny minority to determine who wins and makes these critical government decisions.
Opening primaries is not about helping one party.
It is about recognizing that the de facto general election in NYC is often the closed primary in June, not the general election in November.
Nationally, Gallup reports that 45% of Americans identify as independents.
In New York, more than 3.4 million voters are registered as unaffiliated or “blank,” making them the second-largest voting bloc.
Between 2016 and 2026, their numbers grew by more than 924,000, far faster than either major party.
In NYC, more than 1.1 million hardworking New Yorkers are independent.
In heavily Democratic districts, the Democratic primary effectively decides the winner.
In heavily GOP areas, the Republican primary serves the same function.
Gerrymandering makes many general elections little more than formalities.
November is a fait accompli.
Last year’s mayoral primary drew only 29.9% of registered Democrats.
That means 70.1% stayed home.
In some districts, nearly nine out of 10 Democrats did not vote.
Small, highly motivated factions therefore wield outsized influence over who wins office.
This low turnout phenomenon is not new and has been the norm for decades.
It helped propel Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Congress by defeating Speaker-in-Waiting Joe Crowley in a Democratic primary, with nearly 89% of registered Democrats staying home.
Just last month, the chairman of the Hispanic Caucus and the first Dominican member of Congress, Adriano Espaillat, lost to a relatively unknown candidate; 83% of Democrats did not vote.
District after district, it is clear something has to change.
Regardless of one’s politics, the lesson is the same: relatively small electorates are deciding offices that affect millions of New Yorkers.
We are then told the people have spoken.
No, they have not.
Only a tiny minority of Democrats spoke; the rest of us were kept out.
This is not the way to decide who represents us in government.
Opening primaries would require candidates to appeal to a broader cross-section of voters rather than a narrow activist base.
It would encourage coalition-building, reward pragmatism, and make elected officials accountable to a wider electorate.
Closed primaries regularly reward campaigns that can mobilize small but highly motivated factions.
In the end, pushing extremes is favorable, and seeking consensus is frowned upon.
You see it in both major parties; take a look at the penalty for seeking consensus that makes governing unfathomable for fear of a primary from the extreme in your party.
This is how candidates with positions that many voters view as outside the mainstream can thrive in low-turnout primaries dominated by highly motivated activist factions.
New York prides itself on expanding participation and being progressive, yet it maintains one of the country’s most exclusionary and conservative primary systems.
Most states allow some form of open primary.
If New York wants broader participation and less polarization, the answer is straightforward: open the primaries.
Polanco is an attorney and a professor at the University of Mount Saint Vincent and the Borough of Manhattan Community College and a former president of the New York City Board of Elections.
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