Polls Say New Yorkers Desire Changes in the Voting System

There are a number of reasons for New Yorkers to be dissatisfied with New York politics. From a reputation for corruption to a hyper-partisan focus, much has been made of the flaws in New York’s political system. One area in which New Yorkers have grown increasingly unsatisfied is New York’s voting system.

According to a pair of recent polls by focus group research firm and survey data collector John Zogby Strategies, New Yorkers are unsatisfied with the closed, partisan nature of New York’s primaries and the lack of a voice for independent voters. In 2021, 68% of respondents agreed that a change to an open primary system would improve a political system that is “corrupt, stale, and hyper-partisan.” In 2022, 61% of respondents also expressed support for legislation that would enable third parties to be placed on general ballots for elections. In the 2022 poll, 43% of respondents also signified that they were more likely to support a gubernatorial candidate that ran to establish open primaries, as opposed to 25% who signified that they were less likely to support such a candidate.

Other data from the polls suggested that New Yorkers’ feelings about the current voting system are a symptom of their larger dissatisfaction with New York’s political system. In the 2022 poll, 51% of voters believed that partisan politics in New York had gotten worse since 2020. Furthermore, in the 2021 poll, 56% of respondents believed that the current political system needed serious changes to work. These opinions suggest that there is agreement across party lines that New York needs to change its political system or it risks losing the support of its citizens.