IVAData Lab
The closed-primary system shuts millions of independent voters — and the veterans among them — out of the elections that decide who governs. We map it. Interactive maps, live tools, and data stories from the front line of the open-primary fight.
Maps & Tools
Live, explorable visualizations. Drag, filter, search your district, and pull the real numbers yourself.
Our Candidates in the News
Every headline we can find about the independent veterans IVA supports, from national outlets to hometown papers, gathered every morning and filterable by candidate. Each headline links straight to the outlet.
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Where Our Independent Veterans Stand
Every published poll of the November races IVA-endorsed independent veterans are running in, on one shared scale. Each poll is linked to its original release and reviewed by IVA before it goes up, and polls of matchups that are not on the November ballot are left out.
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One Hundred Days
The last City reading over the asbestos standard inside the restricted zone came on December 20, 2001 — day 100 after the attack. Forty-one samplers, 146 days: watch the plume shrink and flare day by day, read every one of 2,739 readings on a single wall, and set eight official reassurances beside what the samplers recorded on those exact dates.
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The Air Was Safe to Breathe
On September 18, 2001 the EPA said the air was safe. The same day a sampler at 250 South End Avenue read asbestos at 7.8× the federal level. From 170,000 pages the City released for the 25th anniversary: every monitoring station across Lower Manhattan and the boroughs, day by day from September 12, with the cleanup and compensation lines drawn against what was measured.
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The Fine Print
New Hampshire votes September 8, Rhode Island September 9, and independents are the largest bloc in both. All three New England states this season are classed “semi-open” — but the price of using a ballot differs in every one: nothing in Massachusetts, a form at the polls in New Hampshire, a form and 90 days in Rhode Island.
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Massachusetts: Pick a Side
The most independent state in America — an estimated 66.62% of the electorate, No. 1 of 51 — and its majority can vote only by taking one party’s entire ballot. All 351 cities and towns, each raised by its 3,254,435 registered unenrolled voters.
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State Fact Sheets
One fact sheet for every state — veterans, independents, how it votes, and whether its primary lets independents in. Across 16 closed-primary states, an estimated 15,910,313 independents are shut out of choosing nominees.
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2026 Primary Calendar
Every state’s congressional primary, in the order it happens — and the one rule that decides whether an independent can vote in it. Open, semi-open, closed, or all-candidate, with the veterans and independents in every district. Sixteen closed states shut out an estimated 15,910,313 independents.
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The Closed City
Every one of New York’s 4,012 election districts, raised by how many independents live there. In a city where the primary is the election, 1,136,119 New Yorkers are locked out of every one.
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Veteran Density Map
All 436 congressional districts colored by veteran share — overlay IVA candidates and primary systems, rank the top recruiting targets, and open a print-ready brief for any district. 15.7M veterans, mapped.
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South Carolina Showdown
A federal lawsuit could close South Carolina’s open primaries. A 3D county spike map of who loses their vote: up to 1.5 million self-identified independents (voter-file models count ~358,000) — and an estimated 165,000 veterans.
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Veterans Locked Out
How many independent veterans are shut out of closed primaries nationwide? Build the funnel yourself — every assumption is a slider, every number is sourced. The estimate lands near 4.0 million.
Explore →Data Stories
Scroll-driven dispatches — each one a single, hard number about who the primaries leave out.
The Primary Problem
Four states vote today. In all but one race, it’s already over — how a country elects a House without an election.
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Ranked Choice, Closed Doors
The capital adopts ranked choice. The doors stay closed — 86,000 D.C. independents still shut out of the primary that decides everything.
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The Locked City
The biggest city in America locks out 1.2 million of its own voters — and most of the country has already opened that door.
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Three Closed Doors
Three states vote today. Millions of us can’t — more than five million voters shut out across Utah, Maryland, and New York.
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The Door Just Closed
For millions of Florida independents, the primary door closes tonight. 3,324,324 no-party Floridians — and an estimated 650,000 independent veterans — locked out of the August 18 primary.
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Four Veterans. One Ballot.
Washington puts every candidate — Democrat, Republican, independent — on one August ballot. There is no quiet path to November: four independent veterans have to finish in the top two on August 4. Inside the veteran and independent electorate that decides it.
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Connecticut Locked Out
Connecticut’s largest voting bloc cannot vote in its own primary. 935,892 registered unaffiliated voters — 41.5% of the state, more than either party — are shut out of the August 11 closed primaries, including an estimated 63,486 veterans. Not a model: the state’s own enrollment records, mapped across all 169 towns.
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Closing the Gap
Three independent veterans are running for the U.S. Senate in Idaho, Nebraska and South Dakota — and over the past year all three have gained ground on their Republican opponent, by 6 to 10 points. Dan Osborn has crossed from trailing to leading. Every poll behind every number, with sample sizes and sponsors named.
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The Margin Wears Boots
435 House seats, each decided by a number — and a look at how few votes it would take for veterans to change the outcome.
Read →The numbers are on our side.
Half of America’s veterans call themselves independents — and the closed-primary system locks them out. See where you stand, then help us open the doors.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS · State Boards of Elections · MEDSL