Open Primary Bill Would Enfranchise Oregon’s Largest Group of Voters

The Oregon House Rules Committee will hold a hearing March 19 on the latest effort to enfranchise the largest single group of voters in the state: those unaffiliated with any party.

Here are the latest voter registration totals from the Oregon secretary of state:

Non-affiliated: 1,083,316 (36%)

Democrat: 1,003,469 (33%)

Republican: 738,200 (24%)

Despite being the most numerous group, non-affiliated voters cannot vote in state-funded primary elections. As proponents of House Bill 3166 note, Democratic primary elections typically determine the outcome of general elections.

In elections for statewide offices, for example, Dan Meek of the Independent Party of Oregon and the Oregon Election Reform Coalition points out that—with the exception of Dennis Richardson’s victory in the 2016 secretary of state’s race—Democrats have won every partisan election for statewide, non-federal office since 1988.

Similarly, only a handful of races in either legislative chamber are truly contested, a reflection of Democrats’ control of the Legislature, which draws district boundaries.

All that means that registered Democrats, who comprise just 33% of the electorate, are in full control, while the non-affiliated voters have relatively little say.

House Bill 3166 (in its amended form) would change the current system by putting all candidates in the primary election on the same ballot, which would then be used by all voters. The top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, would advance to the general election.

Meek, a longtime elections lawyer, says the bill includes a fix for a problem that has afflicted top-two primaries in Washington and California, by requiring that candidates have a party’s endorsement before using that party’s label on the ballot.

Voters decisively rejected open primary measures in 2008 and 2014, but proponents have continued to push the idea—and Oregon’s Motor Voter law, which automatically registers people getting or renewing driver’s licenses or state identification cards, has accelerated the number of non-affiliated voters.

In testimony filed for tomorrow’s hearing, former lawmakers from both parties, such as former state Sen. Avel Gordly (D-Portland) and former Rep. Max Williams (R-Tigard), urged lawmakers to enfranchise non-affiliated voters. (Democratic and Republican interest groups have opposed open primaries in the past, but none has yet submitted testimony on HB 3166.)

Former Secretary of State Phil Keisling, a Democrat, observed in his pre-filed testimony that the current system particularly penalizes people of color and younger voters, who are disproportionately unaffiliated.

“In the last, May 2024 primary, the median age—half older, half younger—of those who actually cast ballots in the primary was about 64 years of age," Keisling said.

The House Rules Committee meets Wednesday at 8 am, a meeting that can be seen here.

Correction: This story originally misstated when Democrats' dominance in statewide races began.

This story was produced by the Oregon Journalism Project, a nonprofit newsroom covering rural Oregon.