Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
TESTIMONY
Testimony by Jeffrey Aron expressing frustration with closed primaries and supporting open primaries
3:14:26
·
3 min
Jeffrey Aron testifies passionately in favor of open primaries, expressing anger at being excluded as an independent voter and being pressured to change registration simply to participate in decisive primaries. He decries using taxpayer money for exclusionary elections ("taxation without representation") and links the closed system to broader political disillusionment, particularly among young people.
- Expresses anger at being excluded and pressured to strategically register with a party.
- Criticizes taxpayer funding of exclusionary primaries.
- Connects closed primaries to wider political frustration and youth disengagement.
Jeffrey Aron
3:14:26
Hi.
3:14:27
My name is Jeff Aaron.
3:14:29
I live in Manhattan.
3:14:30
Thank you so much for hosting these meetings.
3:14:33
I'm very pleased to be able to participate.
3:14:36
I want to say how, excited I am.
3:14:39
I guess I'm not surprised, though, that so many people have testified as I am on behalf of open primaries.
3:14:47
Most of the people that I'm speaking with are upset about the fact that they can't vote and that the people who do vote in primaries consist of 5%, maybe 10% of the general population, and that that ends up determining who, citywide as well as a low more local candidates are.
3:15:12
And I just wanted to say since everybody has been so eloquent, in the lead up, in the past month or so, I've been getting call after call from people saying, oh, you know, you gotta change your registration from independent so that you're gonna have a chance to vote in the mayor, in the mayoral primaries because you know that whoever ends up voting in the you know, wins the mayoral primary in June, they're gonna end up being the mayor.
3:15:40
So if you wanna have a voice, you have to vote in the Democratic primary.
3:15:45
Switch your registration.
3:15:47
The kind of blackmail and heavy handed, persuasion that takes my vote for granted, my principles, my values, and says, lie in order to be able to participate in this democracy really offends me.
3:16:04
The fact that my tax dollars goes to support Democratic and Republican primaries and doesn't include million people who would like to vote and don't have the opportunity seems so I mean, taxation without representation, that just seems so unfair.
3:16:25
And other cities and states around the country have managed to figure out how to deal with this.
3:16:32
But in New York City, the, as someone said, the institution that really dominates is not so I mean, yes, the real estate industry is a problem, but the Democratic Party won't give up the Democratic right of all people in the city to vote.
3:16:53
But that's not just true in New York City.
3:16:56
That's true in cities and states around the country.
3:17:00
There's a lot of anger out here, and there's a lot of support as you can tell from this testimony.
3:17:07
And you're contributing to a a really bad situation in our country, what we have now in our country, this disillusion.
3:17:17
And among young people, most young people are registering as independents.
3:17:23
What are they supposed to do in this coming election?
3:17:25
Election?
3:17:28
If they want to participate, what are young people going to do?