Three states vote today. Millions of us can’t.
Utah, Maryland, and New York hold their primaries today. In all three, independents are locked out of the party contests that decide most races — unless they give up their independence and register with a party. Across the three states, more than five million voters are shut out.
Three Closed Doors
Same day.
Same publicly funded elections.
Same locked door.
Same day. Same lockout.
All three states vote today — and all three shut independents out of the primaries that matter. New York and Maryland run fully closed primaries. Utah is partially closed — but its Republican primary, the one that decides nearly every race in a deep-red state, is members-only. Add it up: more than five million independents locked out unless they register with a party.
Estimates range from 4.5 to 6 million depending on how Utah’s partial-closed rules are counted. In every case, the voters shut out are the ones who declined to join a party.
The Empire State, Closed
A closed primary in the biggest closed-primary state on today’s board.
Nearly one in three New Yorkers, shut out.
New York runs a fully closed primary: only registered party members may vote, and independents are excluded unless they re-registered into a party by the state’s early change-of-party deadline. That locks out 3.7 million independents — the largest bloc on today’s board. We mapped New York City’s piece of this in The Locked City.
Each dot ≈ 30,000 shut-out independents. To vote, a New Yorker had to abandon their independence months in advance — or sit the deciding election out.
A Million Locked Out
Closed for both major parties — paid for by everyone.
Publicly funded. Privately gated.
Maryland law closes both major-party primaries: only registered Democrats vote in the Democratic primary, only registered Republicans in the Republican one. As of April 2025, roughly 957,000 unaffiliated voters — more than one in five Marylanders — were shut out of the contests that pick the nominees for most offices, even though those primaries run on public money.
Each dot ≈ 10,000 shut-out unaffiliated voters. Nearly a million Marylanders fund the primary with their taxes — and aren’t allowed to vote in it.
Half Closed Is Still Closed
Some doors open by request — but the one that decides the state stays shut.
The room that matters.
Utah’s Republican primary is closed — and in a state this red, that’s the election. An unaffiliated Utahn cannot enter it without registering as a Republican. Of Utah’s 477,000 independents, every one is shut out of the contest that actually decides their representation.
The rooms that don’t.
Several parties — including the Democratic Party — let unaffiliated voters in, but only if they actively request that ballot. In most of Utah, those primaries don’t determine the winner. The open door leads to the wrong room.
“Partially closed” sounds like a compromise. In practice it means: you may vote in the primaries that don’t count, and you’re barred from the one that does.
When the primary is the election, a closed primary is a locked door. Open it.
Utah, Maryland, and New York shut more than five million independents out of the primaries that decide their representation — on the same day, with public money. Veterans are the most independent Americans of all, locked out alongside everyone else. The fix isn’t complicated. It’s the open, all-candidate primary — the one that lets every voter in.