IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0335840.html

Can nonpartisan primaries boost turnout and lessen demographic disparities?

Author

Listed:
  • Todd Donovan
  • Nathan K Micatka
  • Caroline J Tolbert

Abstract

U.S. congressional general elections are largely uncompetitive, featuring candidates who emerge from low-turnout primaries. Voters in these primaries are unrepresentative of the broader electorate; primary voters tend to be older and wealthier. Previous research has focused on how open and nonpartisan primaries may affect the turnout of unaffiliated voters in primaries. We are interested in the downstream effects of opening primaries, including their estimated effects on turnout of younger voters and those with lower socioeconomic status. This study uses large samples of administrative voter file data to investigate whether nonpartisan and open primaries were associated with higher turnout across multiple elections (2018 and 2022). Results find open primaries were not associated with higher individual-level turnout. We found that nonpartisan primaries were associated with higher turnout across all age groups, including both low- and high-income groups, as well as low- and high-education groups. The results find the greatest proportionate increases for younger voters.

Suggested Citation

  • Todd Donovan & Nathan K Micatka & Caroline J Tolbert, 2025. "Can nonpartisan primaries boost turnout and lessen demographic disparities?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(12), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0335840
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0335840
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0335840
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0335840&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0335840?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert G. Boatright & Caroline J. Tolbert & Nathan K. Micatka, 2024. "Public opinion on reforming U.S. primaries," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 105(3), pages 876-893, May.
    2. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769, December.
    3. Omar El Deeb & J. Villaseñor-Ibáñez & M. del Castillo-Mussot, 2025. "Faith, geography and the ballot box: Analyzing voting trends in the 2020 US presidential election through spatial and confessional correlations," International Journal of Modern Physics C (IJMPC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 36(02), pages 1-14, February.
    4. Hirano,Shigeo & Snyder, Jr,James M., 2019. "Primary Elections in the United States," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107440159, January.
    5. Eveline Dowling & Caroline Tolbert & Nathan Micatka & Todd Donovan, 2025. "Is Ranked‐Choice Voting Associated With Turnout Across Race/Ethnic Groups?," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 106(3), May.
    6. Hirano,Shigeo & Snyder, Jr,James M., 2019. "Primary Elections in the United States," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107080591, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Castanheira, Micael & Huck, Steffen & Leutgeb, Johannes & Schotter, Andrew, 2023. "How Trump triumphed: Multi-candidate primaries with buffoons," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    2. Sanford C. Gordon & Hannah K. Simpson, 2020. "Causes, theories, and the past in political science," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 185(3), pages 315-333, December.
    3. Michael Nower, 2025. "Perceived job security and politicians’ legislative effort," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 204(3), pages 563-588, September.
    4. Katherine Casey & Abou Bakarr Kamara & Niccoló Meriggi, 2019. "An Experiment in Candidate Selection," NBER Working Papers 26160, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Cintolesi, Andrea, 2022. "Political polarization and primary elections," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 200(C), pages 596-617.
    6. Wioletta Dziuda & William G. Howell, 2021. "Political Scandal: A Theory," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 65(1), pages 197-209, January.
    7. Crutzen, Benoît S.Y. & Sahuguet, Nicolas, 2023. "Comparative politics with intraparty candidate selection," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Gabriele Ruiu & Giovanna Gonano, 2020. "Religious Barriers to the Diffusion of Same-sex Civil Unions in Italy," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 39(6), pages 1185-1203, December.
    9. Wright, Austin L. & Sonin, Konstantin & Driscoll, Jesse & Wilson, Jarnickae, 2020. "Poverty and economic dislocation reduce compliance with COVID-19 shelter-in-place protocols," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 544-554.
    10. Guido de Blasio & Daniela Vuri, 2019. "Effects of the Joint Custody Law in Italy," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(3), pages 479-514, September.
    11. Graves Jennifer & McMullen Steven & Rouse Kathryn, 2018. "Teacher Turnover, Composition and Qualifications in the Year-Round School Setting," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 18(3), pages 1-27, July.
    12. Alston Lee J. & Mueller Bernardo, 2018. "Priests, Conflicts and Property Rights: the Impacts on Tenancy and Land Use in Brazil," Man and the Economy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-26, June.
    13. S Anukriti & Catalina Herrera‐Almanza & Praveen K. Pathak & Mahesh Karra, 2020. "Curse of the Mummy‐ji: The Influence of Mothers‐in‐Law on Women in India†," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 102(5), pages 1328-1351, October.
    14. Ellison, Richard B. & Ellison, Adrian B. & Greaves, Stephen P. & Sampaio, Breno, 2017. "Electronic ticketing systems as a mechanism for travel behaviour change? Evidence from Sydney’s Opal card," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 80-93.
    15. Cruzatti C., John & Bjørnskov, Christian & Sáenz de Viteri, Andrea & Cruzatti, Christian, 2024. "Geography, development, and power: Parliament leaders and local clientelism," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    16. Yusuke Matsuki, 2016. "A Distribution-Free Test of Monotonicity with an Application to Auctions," Working Papers e110, Tokyo Center for Economic Research.
    17. Shvartsman, Elena & Beckmann, Michael, 2015. "Stressed by your job: What is the role of personnel policy?," Working papers 2015/15, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    18. MacDonald, Peter, 2013. "Labour substitution and the scope for military outsourcing," MPRA Paper 46688, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Matteo Migheli, 2021. "Green purchasing: the effect of parenthood and gender," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 10576-10600, July.
    20. Yuyang Li & Jiahui Li & Xinjie Li & Qian Lu, 2024. "Does Participation in Digital Supply and Marketing Promote Smallholder Farmers’ Adoption of Green Agricultural Production Technologies?," Land, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-24, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0335840. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.