The Irrationality of Multiple Primaries

Despite some high profile and important races, few New Yorkers are expected to vote in Tuesday’s primary. To make matters worse, this is just the first of two primaries in the state this year.

Unlike voters across the country, New Yorkers are being asked to participate in two primaries—one on Tuesday for federal offices and one on September 9 for state and local offices. It is not common to hold two primaries because it is expensive and requires voters to go to the polls twice something that is almost certain to depress turnout.

New York’s dual primary system is not cheap. By some estimates it costs the state a whopping $50 million. Talk about a fleecing.

An arguably more important issue, however, is that it decreases voter participation in a state that already has one of the lowest turnout averages in the nation. Over the last thirty years turnout in New York has been well below the national average. In 2012, a presidential election year, just 53 percent of New Yorkers cast ballots compared with an average 58 percent nationwide. This placed New York 44th among all the states and Washington, D.C. in turnout. In 2010, the last midterm election, turnout was even lower. While New York had previously been ranked one of the 10 lowest turnout states, by 2010 the state had the unenviable distinction of ranking dead last in terms of turnout.

If turnout is dismal in presidential and midterm general elections, it is far worse during primaries in midterm election years. As Walter Shapiro writes, “In the three prior midterm election cycles in this century (2002, 2006 and 2010), national voter turnout in congressional primaries has never exceeded 7.5 percent of the voting age population. Put another way, more Americans have a favorable image of Iran than are likely to vote in congressional primaries this year.”

Faced with such low voter turnout, it makes little sense to ask voters to go to the polls more times than necessary. Yet that is precisely what has been occurring in New York. For several years the Assembly and Senate Democrats have tried to move the state and local primaries so they align with a federal court judge’s ruling that congressional primaries be held in late June. Unfortunately, Senate Republicans and the Independent Democratic Conference have opposed these efforts. Things got so bad in 2012 that there were three primaries—one for president, one for congressional races and one for state/local elections. We are facing a similar situation again this year (minus the presidential primary).

A consolidated primary date is not the only—or even the most important—step that can be taken to make voting easier, increase participation, and ensure New York’s turnout ranking rises. For years good government groups have advocated for early voting, mail ballot elections, same day registration, weekend voting, making Election Day a holiday, and a host of other reforms designed to increase turnout.

Americans often get a bad rap for not voting in as large numbers as their counterparts in other Western democracies. The truth is, however, that the United States asks its citizens to go to the polls much more frequently and to vote for more candidates than voters in other nations. As Ivor Crewe writes, “The average American is entitled to do far more electing—probably by a factor of three or four—than citizens of any other democracy.” And far from taking steps to ease this burden, as a result of gridlock and an inability to work across the aisle, the New York state Legislature has actually made it worse.

New York’s dual primary system is unconscionable from both a fiscal and governance perspective. While it is too late to fix the problem this year, the Legislature should take the necessary steps to ensure that New Yorkers are not asked to vote in three separate primaries in 2016.

 Primary election consolidation may not be a panacea, but it is certainly a small step in the right direction.

Dr. Jeanne Zaino (@JeanneZaino on Twitter) is a political analyst, commentator, columnist, author, pollster and professor.