An election worker distributes “I voted” stickers in Salt Lake City on Election Day 2024. More than 30 ballot initiatives across the country this year focus on democracy, including questions about voting rights, election processes, redistricting and similar issues. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
When Pennsylvanians go to the polls ahead of Tuesday’s primary election, they will choose who will represent their party in statewide races in November. However, nearly 1.5 million voters registered as independent or third-party are barred from voting in the state’s party primaries.
This is because, under Pennsylvania law, only registered Democrats and Republicans can vote in their party’s primary elections.
Pennsylvania is one of eight states with closed primaries. Another nine have so-called “partially closed” primaries, in which parties have the option of allowing unaffiliated voters to cast ballots.
But some advocates are trying to change that.
“We believe there is a tremendous need to highlight and support the fact that more and more Americans do not want to be on the blue team or the red team,” said John Opdycke, founder and president of Open Primaries, a national organization that advocates for nonpartisan primary systems in local, state and federal elections.
“Pennsylvania is kind of old school,” he added. “It has a primary system that was designed about 90 years ago. It’s very exclusionary… independents can’t vote in the primary.”
Decades ago, when more than 90% of voters belonged to political parties, the system made sense, Opdycke said, but times have changed.
As it stands, registered independent and unaffiliated voters constitute the fastest growing part of the Commonwealth electorate. Nearly 1.2 million voters in Pennsylvania are registered as independents. Another 315,000 are registered with third parties. That’s almost 17% of the electorate.
Opdycke says that number also misses voters who may identify as independents but register with the main party to vote in the primary.
According to from the latest Gallup poll45% of American adults identify as independent, a record number since Gallup began asking in 1988.
“The phenomenon of the rise of independent voters, as I understand it… is best understood when people say, ‘there’s got to be a better way than this,'” Opdycke said at a news conference Monday. “The numbers are astonishing. In blue, red and purple states, voters are leaving their parties in droves. And yet we are still stuck in Pennsylvania… with a system that treats them like second-class citizens.”
2024 survey from Franklin & Marshall College also shows that 77% of Pennsylvanians support switching to an open primary system, which would allow unaffiliated voters to cast ballots in partisan primaries.
Just over 30% of survey respondents added that they would be more willing to change party registration if there were open primaries.
Thomas Graf, an Allegheny County resident and lifelong Pennsylvanian, said he is a proud independent citizen. He was registered with one of the two major parties (though he declined to say which) for 35 years before becoming disillusioned with the partisan system.
However, living in the same county as Pittsburgh, a Democratic stronghold, means he cannot vote in the numerous Democratic primaries that often determine the results of the general election that precedes them.
“I believe that most of our current problems stem from the current electoral process,” he said. “Ninety percent of elections in Allegheny County are decided in the primary, so I have no control over that. But I have to live with whoever gets elected. I have to live with what they decide to do or the laws they come up with.”
Still, advocates like Opdycke are hopeful that something can change in Pennsylvania.
David Thornburg is president of the advocacy organization Ballot PA. The group is part of an ongoing lawsuit against the state. They argue that closed primaries violate the Free and Equal Elections Clause of the Pennsylvania Constitution by disempowering independent voters and third-party registered voters.
“We firmly believe that the exclusion of independent voters from primary elections is unconstitutional under the state constitution and the Liberty and Equality Clause, which has been in the constitution since its inception and has been interpreted to mean that the state cannot engage in the business of favoring one class of voters over another,” Thornburg said.
He argues that closed primaries effectively favor certain classes of voters – those who register with the main party – over those who register as independents.
Thornburg emphasized how often primaries that exclude independent voters can prove decisive in areas of the commonwealth that favor one party over another.
“The power difference is quite clear,” he added.
Supporters continue to push for legislative solutions.
Over the years, numerous bills have been introduced to move the state to an open primary system. While some passed through one chamber, none reached the governor’s desk.
In 2023, a bill introduced by Rep. Jared Solomon (D-Philadelphia) passed the Housebut he died in the Senate. In 2019 Bill introduced by former Sen. Joseph Scarnati (R-Jefferson) passed the Senate but ultimately failed in the House.
Solomon also presented Bill this session, which would allow independents to vote in partisan elections.
“An open elementary school system fosters greater civic engagement, encourages new ideas, and strengthens our democracy,” Solomon wrote in a memo seeking co-sponsors.
Independent voters can still vote on primary election issues.
