A little more than a century ago, Americans did not vote in primary elections. Voters showed up for the general election — and that was it.

But after decades of discovering that party bosses and special interests had already decided the outcomes, reformers created primaries to give voters a voice earlier in the process. For a time, it worked.

Today, that system is breaking down. In fact, the structure of modern primaries has become one of the largest drivers of political dysfunction in the United States. Two historic changes — neither present when primaries were created — explain why: the collapse of electoral competition and the rise of independent voters.

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We often describe America as a two-party system. In reality, most Americans live in one-party political environments. Because of how districts are drawn and where people tend to live, most districts now solidly vote Republican or Democratic, so the general election often feels like a formality.

Hawaiʻi is no exception. Many races are uncompetitive, offering little real choice, and some offer none at all. In the 2024 general election cycle, one-third of Hawaiʻi’s races — from the Legislature to City Council — were uncontested. That means there was only one candidate on the ballot. In races for district attorney, there was not a single contested election anywhere in the state.

We’ve been so conditioned to believe that the “real election” is in November. It’s the complete opposite today. Primaries are actually where outcomes are effectively decided and where meaningful voter influence exists. Primaries are where most politicians in Hawaiʻi — and in America — get elected.

Yet primaries now function less as tools of democracy than as mechanisms for exclusion. By law, voters must choose a single party ballot, gaining access to only one slate of candidates while being shut out from all others.

Even that limited choice is often illusory. In a blue state like Hawaiʻi, only one primary truly matters: the Democratic primary. The same dynamic exists in heavily Republican states. Candidates and voters alike must align with the dominant party or surrender any realistic chance to shape who ultimately holds office. The result is an electoral prison of our own making.

This is especially troubling because primaries are public elections. Taxpayers fund them, and government agencies administer them. Yet participation is effectively narrowed to a smaller, more ideologically concentrated slice of the electorate — voters who end up exercising disproportionate influence over every elected office in the state.

Meanwhile, the very idea of “red” and “blue” states grows more outdated each year. Americans are leaving the parties in record numbers. A recent Gallup survey found that 45% of Americans now identify as independents — the largest political group in the country. Independents already outnumber party members in many states and rank second in most others.

In Hawaiʻi nearly half the electorate is estimated to be independent. Among younger voters, the shift is even clearer: 54% of millennials and 56% of Gen Z identify as independents, making them the largest voting bloc by age.

So why are we clinging to an election system designed for a political world that no longer exists?
It doesn’t have to be this way. Primaries are public elections, and public elections can be reformed.

Senate Bill 2480 would replace party primaries with a single open primary in which every candidate appears on one ballot and every voter can choose from the full field. This model is already used across much of the West — including Alaska, California, and Washington — and it dominates local elections nationwide, where roughly 85% of American cities use similar systems.

Change may not come easily, but it is already happening. A decade ago, the Democratic Party of Hawaiʻi went to federal court seeking to close primaries to independents altogether. They lost.

Now some Democrats clearly think a new direction is warranted. That’s because voters, much like those who demanded primaries a century ago, are tired of a system that no longer works for them. They want genuine choice and real accountability. These elected leaders are listening.

That is the promise of a single open primary: restoring power to voters and encouraging leaders to compete for broad public support rather than narrow partisan advantage. Common-sense politics may feel scarce elsewhere in the country, but it has long been central to Hawaiʻi’s political culture.

It’s time to let it work again.