A voter steps from the voting booth after casting a ballot in the Pennsylvania primary in Philadelphia, Tuesday, May 18, 2021.
Pennsylvania is one of only nine states with closed primary elections that exclude independent voters. A proposed reform could change that, however.
The House State Government Committee held a public hearing Tuesday on House Bill 1369, which would allow registered independents to vote in primary elections while registered Republicans and Democrats would be prevented from voting in the other party’s primary.
“In our most recent primary election, only 18% of Pennsylvania’s registered voters went to the ballot box to cast a vote. The low turnout can in part be attributed to voters feeling disenfranchised by the extremes of both major parties, who have taken control of our primary process,” Rep. Christopher Quinn, R-Media, wrote in his legislative memo. “Allowing more people the opportunity to have a voice in their representation is an important step toward ensuring democracy.”
Republicans and Democrats both expressed interest in opening primaries during the hearing, but support was not unanimous.
“My district, like many districts, (is) becoming more heavily independent ... (voters) would really like to participate in the full election system,” said Rep. Scott Conklin, D-State College, and the Democratic chairman of the committee.
“I want all Pennsylvanians to have a role in our democracy and play a part in our primary elections,” Quinn said.
He noted that about 1.2 million residents cannot vote in primaries because they are unaffiliated with the Democratic or Republican parties.
Closed primary states are in the South and West as well, but most are clustered in the Northeast, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and Delaware all have closed primaries.
One argument for opening the primaries was that it spurs more voter participation.
“Voters who are not communicated with during the primary season have less incentive, less knowledge to turn out in the general election,” said John Opdycke, president of Open Primaries, a group that advocates for election reforms. “So opening the primaries to independents is not simply about giving them access to a primary, it will help increase turnout in the general election.”
Opdycke also dismissed concerns about “raiding” (or “strategic voting”), where one party votes in another party’s primary, as a “bogeyman.”
“Strategic voting is one of these things that doesn’t really happen,” he said.
Quinn’s proposed bill also does not allow voters registered with one party to vote in another party’s primary.
Democrats and Republicans also receive tax dollars for primary elections, said Rep. Jared Solomon, D-Philadelphia, yet independents cannot participate.
“Primaries cost $20-$25 million every cycle,” Opdycke said. “If they’re going to be private elections, they should be privately run and privately funded. They should not have the imprimatur of government on them.”
“What we know is that the status quo is not working,” Solomon said, referring to the majority of voters not voting in primary elections.
Other legislators pointed out, however, that the status quo was created in an effort to expand transparency and democratic participation.
“The primary system was established in Pennsylvania to bring about transparency in how the parties select their candidates,” said Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon. “This was to bring it out into the open so the people who were registered as Republicans and Democrats could actually go and openly select their candidates. So let’s not think of this as a totally closed system. This was brought about to bring transparency to the party nomination process.”
The strongest critic of opening the primary system was Rep. Paul Schemel, R-Waynesboro.
“We have primaries so the parties can select their nominees,” Schemel said. “So conceptually, I have a difficult time getting around why it is that individuals who don’t belong to that party would have any interest or right to demand to be part of the process of selecting who that party’s nominee would be.”
Schemel emphasized that the primary is not a first-round voting stage like in European parliamentary elections, but instead a selection process within a political party.
“Perhaps there are partisans who run for office and become nominees who you might say are too extreme, but I don’t necessarily believe it’s the government’s responsibility to fix the political parties’ problems for them,” Schemel said. “In fact, that’s what the general election is for.”
To participate in the primaries, he noted, unaffiliated voters could join a political party.
“Independents and unaffiliated voters have every right to participate in the primaries – in fact, they have the same right as those who are partisans, which is they can register with a party and vote,” Schemel said. “What they don’t have are more rights than those who are registered as partisans.”
Solomon argued opening primaries improves the democratic process.
“The question is: What if we bring some more voices to the table?” he asked. “Broaden the number of people who have a claim to our democracy, empower people. That’s a positive, that’s what we need to be doing, and it reflects where people are.”
