Open Contests and Poor People: Two More Sanders Myths Dispelled

Two myths that I have heard repeated many times by not only Sanders and his campaign, but by many of his supporters, are that he would be winning the Democratic Primaries if there were more open contests, thereby allowing independents to have a bigger voice, and if more poor people voted. But let's take a look at the reality:

Open Contests
Contrary to a belief apparently held by many Sanders supporters that the primaries are just a bunch of elitist, closed-door contests (because apparently registered Democratic voters are all elitists), the fact is that many of the contests held so far have been open contests, and of the 18 open contests held to date Hillary has won 11 of them:

Source: Ballotpedia

Poor People
It's true that poor people traditionally have lower turnout rates than other economic classes. However, the claim that Sanders would benefit from higher turnout among this group is dubious. Of voters with an annual income of less than $50,000 Hillary has beaten Sanders by 11 points. He has lost voters making over $100,000 by 21 points, and middle income voters by 9 points. In short, Sanders has suffered a rout at Clinton's hands among all economic classes.



sources:
https://ballotpedia.org/Open_primary
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/04/23/sanders-says-he-has-lost-primaries-to-clinton-because-poor-people-dont-vote/