When primaries are decided by a small, highly partisan group of voters, leaders are incentivized to cater to that narrow base rather than the broader electorate they represent. This reduces accountability and can discourage solutions.
The Voters Fairness Act can change that
1.35 million Oregon voters can’t vote in primaries for the state’s most important offices. Only Democrats and Republicans may participate, even though NAV’s (Non-Affiliated Voters) are now the largest voting group in Oregon.
When primaries are decided by a small, highly partisan group of voters, leaders are incentivized to cater to that narrow base rather than the broader electorate they represent. This reduces accountability and can discourage solutions.
This reform lets every eligible voter participate in primaries. All candidates appear on a single primary ballot, with the top two finishers advancing to the general election. Political parties can opt-out and nominate to the general at their own expense. Nonaffiliated candidates can qualify for the general election by collecting signatures.
Press Highlights on Oregon’s Movement to Let Every Voter Vote
Your contribution supports a commonsense reform that puts voters back in charge, and ensures leaders have to answer to the whole community, not just a narrow base.
As ballots are being mailed to Oregon voters, we are reminded that the largest group of voters in our state – the 1.1 million voters who decline to be registered with a political party — will be denied a voice in selecting the candidates for Governor, U.S. Congress and for the Legislature in the November election. That’s 38% of all Oregon registered voters who cannot vote in taxpayer-funded elections that decide our state’s most important representatives.
This has to change – as a matter of fairness for those voters and as a recognition that our democracy will work better for all of us when we open our primary elections to all voters. A large majority of Oregonians agree.
But, given the time constraints we are facing to qualify our open primary measures for the 2026 ballot, we have decided to refocus our efforts on the 2027 Legislative Session and 2028 election.
We are grateful to the many volunteers and supporters who are calling attention to the need for opening up Oregon’s closed primary system. And we look forward to working with them in the year ahead to establish full voting rights for Oregon’s non-party voters – by continuing to demand action on this issue by the Legislature and by filing new measures for the 2028 election. Please sign up at voterfairness.com for updates moving forward.