Indiana secretary of state candidate Greg Ballard last week criticized Democrats and Republicans for legal requirements that limit who can seek election in the party primaries. Under state law, potential candidates must have cast their two most recent primary ballots with the party for which they want to run.
Ballard, a former Indianapolis mayor, is attempting an independent campaign under the “Lincoln Party” label. He called for both major parties to begin paying the cost of their primaries instead of state taxpayers.
“The Republican and Democrat parties need to make it easier for everyday Hoosiers to run or they must pay the costs for their closed primary elections,” Ballard said in a statement April 28. “The primary system in Indiana is broken and needs to be accessible to all Hoosiers anxious to serve their state.”
Would an open primary, where voters wouldn’t have to declare party affiliation, attract higher participation? Perhaps. But there is rarely statewide interest in Indiana in primary elections. It will be interesting if the millions in outside money to unseat Republican senators who voted against last year’s gerrymander stimulates higher turnout by the time the polls close today.
For the 2024 primary election, a meager 17% of the state’s registered voters cast ballots, while 61% did so in November. Two years earlier, turnout was 23% for the primary and 65% for the general election.
A look at state election records doesn’t show a trend as much as it highlights apathy toward primaries. It looks as though democracy is dying right before our eyes, and Hoosiers should find that troubling.
The 2025 Indiana Civic Health Index, released early this year by the Indiana Bar Foundation, reveals mixed results. There were improvements in voter registration and turnout, but they continued to lag behind national averages. It highlighted gains in volunteering and civic education but noted declines in political involvement and neighborhood connection.
Indiana’s closed primary elections require voters to declare party affiliation and limit their choices only to intraparty races. But even if someone wanted to influence the outcome in an uncompetitive race by voting in the primary of the party opposite their political beliefs, our current system requires that person to go on the record — a disadvantage for independent voters.
No wonder there’s voter apathy when it comes to primary elections.
Today’s primary will decide the Democratic and Republican nominees for U.S. House and state legislative seats, many county offices, party precinct officials and state convention delegates. Candidates for statewide offices up for election this year — secretary of state, treasurer and comptroller — will be voted upon by delegates to their state party conventions in June.
Ballard’s campaign is in the midst of working to collect the roughly 37,000 certified voter signatures required by state law for his name to appear on Indiana’s November ballot. The campaign cited a secretary of state’s office report finding that Indiana’s 2024 primaries cost taxpayers $13.3 million to run and the 2023 primaries cost $8.7 million.
Supporters of closed primaries argue that parties have a right to allow only members to select nominees. Public funding doesn’t preclude closed primaries, they say, and prevents sabotage.
Opponents agree that primaries should be open to all registered voters because they are publicly funded. Closed primaries can produce more ideologically extreme nominees and such elections too often decide general election winners.
A small percentage of Hoosiers thankfully still vote, perhaps out of a sense of duty. But increasingly, it seems, people would rather rant on social media than vote to express their political views. Until that changes, or Indiana moves to an open primary system, the democratic process and citizenry aren’t well-served and neither are local, state and federal governments.
This story originally appeared in The Journal Gazette.