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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Howard Levy supporting open primaries for participation, moderation, and accountability
3:26:08
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114 sec
Howard Levy testifies in support of open primaries as a way to combat mistrust in government by increasing participation and ensuring voices like his (as an independent) are heard. He believes open primaries foster moderation by reducing the influence of political extremes and increase accountability, urging the commission to add it to the 2025 ballot.
- Argues open primaries build trust through increased participation.
- Believes they empower independent voters and lead to more moderate outcomes.
- Urges placing open primaries on the 2025 ballot.
Howard Levy
3:26:08
Hi.
3:26:09
Thank you, everyone, and I apologize for lying down.
3:26:12
My back hurts.
3:26:13
I mean, no disrespect to the commission.
3:26:16
I'm here to talk about open primaries.
3:26:19
You've heard a lot of the the the the information before.
3:26:23
I'm a New Yorker.
3:26:24
I'm married.
3:26:24
I have two kids.
3:26:25
We live in New York, and we're part of the fabric of society, and we like our votes to be heard along with the million other people who cannot vote in one party or the other's primaries.
3:26:37
Look.
3:26:37
There's a there's a huge mistrust in government right now.
3:26:39
That's a problem.
3:26:40
We need to have as much participation as possible.
3:26:43
You heard from the gentleman at Citizens United about the low participant participant participation rates in New York City kinda constantly declining over the decades.
3:26:52
This is not not a good sign.
3:26:54
You've heard from others about, like, Curtis Lee while getting less votes, fewer votes than, say, Catherine, sorry, miss Garcia and still, you know, being on the, general election ballot.
3:27:07
But the the the ranked choice voting is good, by the way, as well.
3:27:10
But, you know, in so I'll I'll just kinda say in terms of open open primaries, People a matter of view should be able to have a say, you know, in in what happens.
3:27:25
So, for open primaries, for people regardless of their political, their party affiliation to participate, and let's open up the election process.
3:27:36
Let's have more accountability.
3:27:38
Let's get the extremes out of the system so that we could have a more moderate voice and not the kowtowing to the left or the right, and let's increase the participation in elections overall.
3:27:51
So thank you and respectfully urge the commission to consider open primaries to be added to the 2025 ballot so we can have more inclusive political representation.
3:28:02
Thank you.