R Street Testimony in Support of DE HB 188, Open Primary Elections
Testimony from:
Dr. Jonathan Madison, Governance Fellow, R Street Institute
In Support of House Bill 188, “AN ACT to Amend Title 15 of the Delaware Code Relating to Primary Elections.”
March 11, 2026
House Elections & Government Affairs Committee
Chairwoman Bolden and Members of the Committee:
My name is Dr. Jonathan Madison, and I am a governance fellow at the R Street Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization. Our mission is to engage in policy analysis and outreach to promote free markets and limited, effective government in a variety of areas, including election administration. This is why we support House Bill 188.
HB 188 makes a meaningful but targeted change to Delaware’s existing primary election structure by allowing the state’s more than 200,000 unaffiliated voters to select a party ballot and participate in that party’s primary. Unaffiliated voters comprise approximately 30 percent of all registered voters.[1] Despite their significant numbers, these voters are currently shut out of the primary process entirely.
Delaware’s primary elections are publicly funded and are therefore supported by all taxpayers, including unaffiliated voters, who should not be excluded from a system they help finance.[2] Enabling more voters to participate fosters legitimacy and trust in election outcomes.[3] Increased primary participation also encourages prospective candidates to appeal to a wider range of their constituents.[4] This results in stronger general election candidates who have demonstrated their ability to earn support from a broader electorate.[5] HB 188 does not forcibly open primaries; instead, it offers a practical, administratively feasible path for unaffiliated voters to engage in determining who will be the party standard-bearer.
HB 188 provides Delawareans with the opportunity to become more involved in selecting their representatives. Moreover, it will improve Delaware’s primaries and competition, giving unaffiliated voters who are also taxpayers the meaningful participation they’ve been paying for all along. For these reasons, we respectfully encourage a favorable report of HB 188.
Thank you,
Dr. Jonathan Madison
Governance Fellow
R Street Institute
385-500-7537
jmadison@rstreet.org
[1] Voter Registration Totals (State of Delaware Department of Elections, 2026), https://elections.delaware.gov/voter/registrationtotals/pdfs/vrt_PP20260301.pdf.
[2] Taxpayer Funding: The Cost of Closed Primaries (Open Primaries, 2022), https://openprimaries.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Taxpayer-Funding-The-Cost-of-Closed-Primaries.pdf.
[3] Richard Nadeau and André Blais, “Accepting the Election Outcome: The Effect of Participation on Losers’ Consent,” British Journal of Political Science 23, no. 4 (1993): 553–63, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123400006736.
[4] Joshua Ferrer et al., The Effect of Open Primaries on Turnout and Representation (Bipartisan Policy Center, 2024), https://bipartisanpolicy.org/report/the-effect-of-open-primaries-on-turnout-and-representation/.
[5] Sarah Anderson et al., The Electoral Challenge of Balancing Primary and General Electorates (Institute for Policy Research – Northwestern University, 2023), https://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/our-work/working-papers/2023/wp-23-07.html.