Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
TESTIMONY
Testimony by Caroline Donnola, Member of the Public, on her experiences and support for open primaries
1:18:13
·
3 min
Caroline Donnola, a freelance writer and editor with a long history of supporting political reform, testifies in favor of open primaries, drawing on her experience volunteering for California's Proposition 14, which established top-two primaries.
She argues that increasing voter participation is paramount for a healthier democracy and that New York City should be a leader in broadening access.
Donnola shares her personal experiences of being unable to sign candidate petitions as an independent and the surprise of young petitioners upon learning this, emphasizing that now is the moment to open the process.
Caroline Donnola
1:18:13
Good evening.
1:18:14
My name is Caroline Donola.
1:18:16
I live in Bay Ridge in Brooklyn.
1:18:19
I'm a freelance writer and editor, and I've been involved in supporting political reform efforts for more than forty years of my life.
1:18:30
And one of those issues I've been involved in is the issue of open primaries.
1:18:35
I'm a native New Yorker, but I lived in California in the February, early '2 thousands.
1:18:42
And in 2010, I actually volunteered on the campaign for California proposition 14, which was for top two primaries.
1:18:51
At the time, I had a full time job, busy job, but I believed in the cause.
1:18:57
And I went into one of the campaign offices every Sunday for many months, and I called other independent voters.
1:19:05
By the way, in California, an independent voter was called declined to state.
1:19:14
Now we didn't really decline to state anything.
1:19:17
We were independents.
1:19:18
We were stating what we were.
1:19:20
But in any event, that's an example of how independent voters often feel that they don't even count.
1:19:27
So we made the calls, and amazingly enough, that election was won.
1:19:34
We won by 53% of the vote.
1:19:38
Nobody thought it was gonna be possible.
1:19:41
There was a tremendous campaign and a lot of money to try to prevent it, but it passed.
1:19:47
Well, now here I am back in New York.
1:19:52
I moved back in 02/2011, which means although we succeeded in passing open primaries in California, I never got the benefit of it.
1:20:02
I moved to New York City where there was no such thing.
1:20:06
It doesn't feel reasonable to me because I think New York City should be in the lead of doing more to to improve our democracy, to broaden the number of people who participate.
1:20:23
To me, the the level of participation is the most important issue.
1:20:27
The more people that vote, the more voices there are in politics.
1:20:33
We all know, we've heard today, that voter turnout is not good, and we all do know that when everyone can vote, more people participate, and that includes everybody.
1:20:45
So in every community, there's a whole population of people who don't vote for all kinds of reasons.
1:20:51
We need to give those people a reason to vote as well.
1:20:56
Every year in my neighborhood, there are people petitioning to get candidates on the ballot, and they ask me to sign.
1:21:03
And I can't sign a petition because I'm not a registered Democrat.
1:21:07
I'm a registered Independent.
1:21:10
And when I say that to the petitioners, many of them are young people, and they are shocked to learn that we independents can't vote in every election.
1:21:22
So I think it's time for New York City to catch up.
1:21:25
I think we can't keep waiting for the perfect moment.
1:21:29
This is the moment to open up the process to everybody.
Valerie White
1:21:34
Thank you.