Massachusetts Committee Hears Testimony on All-Party Primary Ballot Initiative

BOSTON — March 31, 2026 — Massachusetts lawmakers heard hours of dueling testimony Tuesday on a ballot initiative that would replace the state's partisan primary system with a single all-party preliminary election. The Special Joint Committee on Initiative Petitions, co-chaired by Senate Chair Cindy Friedman and House Co-Chair Alice Peisch, received testimony on Initiative Petition 25-12, H5003, which would place all candidates on one ballot and advance the top two vote-getters to the general election regardless of party. Danielle Allen, convening chair of the Coalition for Healthy Democracy, told the committee that more than half of Massachusetts state-level elections since 2014 featured only one candidate or no candidate, calling the current system "calcified." Northeastern University political science professor Costas Panagopoulos offered a skeptical academic assessment, saying research from California and Washington shows "at most, modest effects rather than a wholesale change." Opponents led by 1199 SEIU political director Gina Frank cited data showing California's average state legislative race cost rose roughly 400 percent in the four years after that state adopted a similar system, and Representative Michael Day pressed Allen on OCPF disclosures showing the coalition raised $2.2 million, with more than $1.6 million from just seven donors. The committee is accepting written testimony through April 4 at 5 p.m.; the measure would reach the November 2026 ballot if proponents gather an additional 12,429 certified signatures and the legislature does not act on it.