Closed primaries shut out millions of voters, divide Americans into ‘warring camps’
Two poll workers unintentionally rattled David Bohlken two decades ago when he walked into a petite country church near Tulsa to vote for his first time as an Oklahoman.
They wouldn’t offer him a ballot. Only a cup of coffee.
“The ballot got flipped upside down on me. I wasn’t even allowed to look at it,” Bohlken said, noting that the two apologetic poll volunteers — his friends — were just doing their jobs. “That kind of made me feel bad.”
Bohlken grew up in Minnesota, a state with open primaries, where all registered voters may participate in any party’s primary election. He didn’t realize his status as a registered independent in Oklahoma would exclude him from partisan primaries.
Millions of voters in states like Oklahoma with primaries that are at least partially closed are shut out from voting in contested races because of their independent status or party affiliation, denying participation in elections their tax dollars fund.
