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Q&A
Commissioner Shams DaBaron questions Grace Rauh on the impact of open primaries on African American voters
1:58:13
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84 sec
Commissioner Shams DaBaron asks Grace Rauh to address concerns that open primaries might diminish the African American vote.
Rauh responds that the over one million disenfranchised unaffiliated voters are a diverse group, including many younger New Yorkers.
- She argues that open primary reform would allow more voters, including Black voters, to participate and shape election outcomes, thereby potentially growing the universe of all voters who can influence these consequential elections.
Shams DaBaron
1:58:13
So so there's there's been concern about, the black African American vote, voters.
1:58:25
How do you address the concerns that the African American vote or black vote will be diminished if we do the open primaries and stuff like that.
1:58:43
Do you have any thoughts on that?
1:58:45
And how do is that, something that we should consider or not?
Grace Rauh
1:58:53
I think that when we look at the data in terms of the 1,000,000 plus unaffiliated voters that are currently disenfranchised and can't participate in the primary process, We know that they are younger and that it is a diverse group of New Yorkers who are registering to vote but are choosing not to participate in a party.
1:59:17
So the open primary reform simply would allow more voters to participate.
1:59:24
So it has the the real potential to grow the universe of of all voters, including black voters in New York in terms of their ability to shape the outcome of these really consequential elections.