How a small minority of voters wind up deciding the vast majority of the U.S. House in partisan primary elections — which reduces voter choice, voice, and representation before a single vote is cast in November.
In 2022,83%of the U.S. House was elected by just8%of Americans.
Despite tens of millions of voters casting ballots in the 2022 general election, a staggering 359 of 435 U.S. House seats were effectively decided months ago by just 8% of voters nationwide.
The Primary Problem is not isolated to one part of the country nor to one party or the other. Of the 83%of races decided in the 2022 primary elections for U.S. House,38%were won by Democrats and45%were won by Republicans before the general election was held.
The result of the Primary Problem is a Congress that is accountable to only a sliver of voters instead of their entire district or the country at large. This reduces the choices voters have on the ballot, limits millions of voters from participation, and distorts political representation in Washington.
Of the 435 races in 2022, 129 seat were effectively uncontested with only one candidate for voters to choose from in dominant party primaries.
13 million voters not registered with either major party were barred from participating in closed party primaries across 9 states.
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Four states are the furthest along the road to solving the Primary Problem: Alaska, California, Louisiana, and Washington have scrapped partisan primaries in favor of elections that give all voters the right to cast a meaningful vote for who represents them in Congress, regardless of party.
In the three that have held nonpartisan primaries (AK, CA, and WA), turnout and electoral competition exceeds the national average. Alaska voters participated in the nation’s first ever top-four nonpartisan primary this year, which was followed by an instant runoff in the general election.