Ohio could be headed for a very different kind of Election Day, with candidates from both parties all piled onto the same primary ballot. State Sen. Louis W. Blessing III has introduced a bill to swap out Ohio’s traditional partisan primaries for a California-style "top-two" system in many marquee statewide and federal races, a move that has immediately split opinion between reformers and skeptics.
What Blessing Wants To Change
Blessing’s proposal, Senate Bill 382, officially titled "Implement a top-two primary election system," was introduced this spring and received its first hearing on May 20 before the Senate General Government Committee. According to the Ohio Senate, Blessing delivered his sponsor testimony that day, and the bill remains parked in committee for now. The measure is also being tracked by LegiScan.
How A Top-Two Primary Would Work In Ohio
The nonpartisan Legislative Service Commission (LSC) lays out the mechanics in its bill analysis. SB382 would create a class of "voter-nominated" offices, including governor and lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general, Ohio General Assembly seats, and Ohio’s congressional delegation. Candidates for those offices would all appear together on a single open primary ballot, and the two highest vote-getters, regardless of party, would move on to the November general election.
Under the LSC analysis, candidates could choose to have a "Preference: (name of party)" line listed next to their names or opt for "No political party preference." Independent hopefuls would no longer have a separate lane and would instead have to meet the same petition thresholds as party candidates to qualify. The bill text also permits write-in candidates in the top-two primary but closes the door to write-ins in the general election. The details are spelled out in the full bill text and the accompanying LSC analysis.
Supporters Say It Opens The Doors
In his sponsor testimony, Blessing argued that the current setup gives disproportionate clout to low-turnout partisan primaries and leaves Ohio’s large bloc of independents and unaffiliated voters sitting on the sidelines. He told colleagues the new system would "broaden voter participation" and finally give those voters a genuine say in who makes the November ballot. Blessing also contended that by forcing candidates to appeal to a wider electorate from the start, top-two primaries could reward broader coalitions instead of pure base politics. His remarks are laid out in Blessing's sponsor testimony.
Critics See A Recipe For Spoilers And Big Money
Not everyone on the committee was sold. At the May hearing, opponents warned that the plan could be easily gamed. Strategists, they argued, might recruit multiple lookalike or "sham" candidates to fracture one party’s vote and engineer which two hopefuls limp into November.
As reported by Cleveland.com, Sen. Bill DeMora flagged the risk of deliberate vote-splitting, while Sen. Steve Huffman warned that running what is essentially a two-round statewide campaign would likely drive up costs for serious contenders. National coverage from the Los Angeles Times notes that similar concerns about strategic candidacies and escalating campaign spending have dogged California’s own top-two system.
The Voter Math Behind The Push
Reform advocates point to Ohio’s registration rolls as Exhibit A. After the 2024 primary, the Ohio Secretary of State reported about 8.06 million registered voters statewide. Of those, roughly 5.73 million were classified as unaffiliated, around 1.51 million as Republican, and about 817,000 as Democrat. The office says those labels come from county registration data and actual voting history, and they are frequently cited by top-two supporters who argue that an open primary would better mirror the real electorate than partisan contests that attract only the most motivated party faithful.
Opponents counter that having a huge unaffiliated pool does not magically fix the problems they see in top-two systems. They argue that who actually turns out, and how much outside money flows into shaping the field, can matter as much as the rules on paper.
Research Offers Mixed, Modest Upgrades
Academic work on top-two primaries has been more restrained than the political rhetoric. A 2023 report from the Unite America Institute found that California’s system modestly reduced polarization, increased electoral competition, and nudged primary turnout upward. Coverage in Governing highlights USC research suggesting that lawmakers elected under top-two rules often wind up less ideologically extreme than their predecessors.
Scholars also warn, though, that those effects are not uniform. Local political geography and the broader campaign finance climate can blunt or amplify whatever changes a top-two system produces.
What Happens Next At The Statehouse
For now, SB382 is still sitting in the Senate General Government Committee. The committee agenda shows that Blessing’s sponsor testimony is in the books and that members can hear from additional supporters and opponents before any vote is scheduled.
If the bill advances, it would still have to clear the full Senate, then the House, and finally land on the governor’s desk. The LSC analysis notes that the new system could not apply to a primary held fewer than 120 days after the bill’s effective date, which puts 2028 as the earliest realistic year Ohio voters might actually see a top-two ballot. Lawmakers in both parties say they plan to keep sifting through data and testimony before deciding whether this California-style shakeup is a fit for the Buckeye State.
