IVA and IVP Launch Let Vets Vote, a National Campaign to Open Closed Primaries

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Press@IndependentVeteransOfAmerica.org

A national campaign to open closed primaries begins in New York, where 3.7 million voters are shut out of the elections that decide who governs, and where an estimated 270,000 veterans identify as independent.

NEW YORK, September 19, 2026: Independent Veterans of America (IVA) and the Independent Voter Project (IVP) today launched Let Vets Vote, a national campaign to open closed primary elections to every voter. The campaign begins in New York, where IVA and its founder, Iraq veteran Paul Rieckhoff, will serve as lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the state’s closed-primary system. Oregon, Kansas and Louisiana are next, with more states to follow in the coming weeks.

The lawsuit will be announced on Wednesday, September 30, 2026 at Fraunces Tavern in lower Manhattan, where IVA and IVP are convening leaders from the independent movement, democracy reform and the veteran community. The evening reception, from 6:30 to 8:30 PM ET, is free and open to the public with RSVP at letvetsvote.org.

New York runs a closed primary. Voters enrolled with no party — 3.1 million of them, 25.3% of the state’s registered voters — cannot vote in either major party’s primary. Counting minor parties, 3.7 million New Yorkers, 29.8% of the electorate, are barred from a Democratic or Republican primary. Separately, an estimated 270,000 New York veterans identify as independent. In most of New York’s 26 congressional districts the general election is not competitive, so the primary is the election that decides who holds the seat.

“Veterans swore an oath to defend the Constitution. Then they came home to a state that will not let them vote in the elections that actually decide who represents them — unless they join a party first. That is the fight,” said Paul Rieckhoff, Founder and CEO of Independent Veterans of America. “IVA exists to support the players: the independent veterans we recruit, endorse and back for office. In closed-primary states the field is tilted before they take it. Support the candidates. Level the field so they can compete. That is Let Vets Vote. We start in New York, and we are not stopping there.”

The case asks a simple question: does the right to vote at a decisive, publicly funded stage of an election come from citizenship, or from membership in a political party? The argument is anchored in United States v. Classic (1941), which holds that the right to vote reaches the primary where the primary is an integral part of choosing who governs, and in the associational logic of California Democratic Party v. Jones (2000).

Lead counsel is S. Chad Peace, attorney and legal strategist for the Independent Voter Project, who has led IVP’s litigation to open closed primaries for more than a decade, including cases in New Jersey, California and Florida. Samuel Gregory, a New York attorney with more than three decades of trial and civil-rights experience, serves as New York counsel. Veterans for All Voters has joined the campaign as a co-signatory.

New Yorkers can sign the petition demanding the state open its primaries to every voter, RSVP for the September 30 convening, and, if they are veterans, indicate their interest in joining the lawsuit at letvetsvote.org.

About Independent Veterans of America

IVA is the first and only organization focused specifically on recruiting, supporting and electing independent and unaffiliated veteran candidates and incumbents. After launching on Independence Day (July 4th) 2024, generating strong membership growth and national media coverage, and historically endorsing 11 candidates last election cycle (including 4 winners), IVA’s 50-state outreach plan has succeeded in galvanizing an outstanding movement of independent veterans who are stepping up to serve at the local, state and federal level, driving independent reform and inspiring communities nationwide to come together and put country over party. Let Vets Vote is part of an IVA plan to recruit, support, train and elect 100 independent veterans nationwide in 2026. Learn more at independentveteransofamerica.org.

About the Independent Voter Project

The Independent Voter Project is a nonpartisan organization that has spent fifteen years working to open primary elections to every voter. IVP authored California’s nonpartisan top-two primary (Proposition 14, 2010) and defended it in court, has brought closed-primary challenges in New Jersey, California and Florida, and is backing a California constitutional amendment to protect every voter’s right to participate in publicly funded elections.