01
One open primary
All qualified candidates appear together, regardless of party. Any voter may choose up to five candidates they support for each office.
EVERYONE CAN PARTICIPATE ↗
A proposal for more representative elections
More choice.
More choice.
A better way
forward.
One primary open to every candidate and every voter. Five finalists. A general election where your backup choices count.
A civic proposal for local, state, and national elections
MORE VOICES INONE SHARED BALLOT
ABCDEFGHI
OPEN PRIMARY
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FIVE ADVANCERANKED GENERAL ↗
Your vote
has room
to breathe.
has room
to breathe.
THE IDEA IN ONE LINEOpen the field. Keep the best five. Let voters rank the rest.↓
01 / THE SYSTEMSimple rules.
Simple rules.
More room for us.
Top5 Voting is a proposed two-stage election. It gives every qualified candidate a path onto one primary ballot, then lets voters express both support and preference.
02
Up to five advance
The five candidates with the most approval votes move on. With one candidate, or if exactly one earns approval from more than half of primary voters, that candidate is elected immediately.
MORE CHOICE IN NOVEMBER ↗
03
Rank the finalists
If there is a general election, voters rank the finalists. The last-place candidate is eliminated each round, and those ballots transfer to their next active choice.
A WINNER WITH BROADER SUPPORT ↗
Getting on the ballot
Read the full proposal Local law sets eligibility. Our recommended starting point is signatures from 1% of the state's registered voters as of January 1 of the election year.
02 / TRY IT YOURSELFSee how your
See how your
voice moves.
These small examples show the mechanics. The candidates and votes are fictional.
THE PRIMARY
Pick the people you could live with.
Choose up to five. Each check is one approval. Your ballot joins 10 fictional ballots already cast.
0of 5 choices used
Sample ballotVOTE FOR UP TO 5
Choose the candidates you support.
Live count10 VOTERS IN THIS DEMO
03 / WHY CHANGE?Politics can be
Politics can be
a shared project.
The goal is a government that reflects more of us, and a political culture that rewards solving problems together.
“
What if candidates had to earn support beyond one political tribe?
THE QUESTION BEHIND TOP5 VOTINGMake space for independents
One all-candidate ballot removes the party nomination as the only practical route to the general election. Candidates can build coalitions around ideas.
Reward broader appeal
In a ranked general election, candidates benefit when voters are willing to put them second or third, even across disagreements.
Represent more views
Five finalists can bring more perspectives into the final conversation than a two-candidate contest.
45%
of U.S. adults identified as political independents in 2025.
That is party identification in a Gallup survey, not voter registration.
Source: Gallup, Jan. 2026 ↗04 / THE LANDSCAPEWhere we are.
Where we are.
Where we could go.
Our goal is adoption in every eligible local and state election. This first tracker separates the exact proposal from related reforms, and keeps state law distinct from municipal examples.
0verified exact Top5 systems
6states with a related statewide element
50states in this baseline scan
STATEWIDE BASELINE
Explore the states
“Related” means a statewide all-candidate primary or ranked-choice voting for at least some major offices. Local rules are shown separately below.
LOCAL EXAMPLES
Pieces of the idea are already in use.
These examples are a starting set, not a complete census of every municipality. None is labeled an exact Top5 match.
Baseline reviewed September 2026. Rules vary by office and may change. Source set: NCSL primary systems, FairVote RCV jurisdictions, and Alaska Division of Elections.
05 / THE PROPOSAL
The rules, in focus.
LOCAL + STATE
A clean, common structure
- Locally established qualifications give candidates a route to the ballot. We suggest a signature threshold equal to 1% of registered voters on January 1 of the election year.
- In the all-candidate primary, voters approve up to five candidates per office.
- If just one candidate runs, or exactly one receives approvals from more than 50% of voters who cast a valid ballot in that race, that candidate is elected.
- Otherwise, up to five candidates with the highest approval totals advance. In the general, voters rank their choices; instant runoff determines the winner.
For drafting: Approval voting can produce more than one candidate above 50%. A tie for the last finalist, general-election ties, and exhausted rankings also need explicit rules.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS
One added national rule
Our proposal would apply eliminations nationally: in each round, remove the candidate with the fewest current top-choice votes nationwide from every state’s rankings, then recalculate each state’s winner and electoral votes. Continue until a candidate has the electoral majority (currently 270 of 538).
If no candidate reaches the required majority, the Constitution’s contingent-election process applies. A full legal and administrative design must address state elector laws, district allocation in Maine and Nebraska, ties, exhausted ballots, timing, and certification.
National Archives: Electoral College FAQ ↗06 / TAKE ACTIONMake it a
Make it a
local conversation.
Change usually begins with a small group asking how elections could work better. Start with the rules where you live, then build a coalition around a clear proposal.
These organizations work on related reforms. Their inclusion does not imply endorsement of this specific proposal.
YOUR STARTING POINTExplore ballot access rules ↗
Pick a state to see its baseline status and a practical first step.
Three first moves
- Confirm the election authority and route for your specific office.
- Invite people across political lines to review the idea.
- Ask an election-law expert to turn the proposal into local language.