In an increasingly partisan Pennsylvania, the way for one party or the other to win isn’t about the people who register Republican or Democrat.
It’s about engaging the independents who haven’t declared a side.
There are about 1.3 million registered independent voters in Pennsylvania. They make up about 15% of the state’s electorate. Nationally, about 40% of people embrace the label, even if they pick a party — such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, who serves as an independent but ran for president as a Democrat. Gallup shows that while Democrat and Republican registrations are down, independents are on the rise.
But if there is one thing that makes it hard to engage these up-for-grab voters, it’s the fact Democrats and Republicans get to vote twice a year. In Pennsylvania, Independents get to do so only once.
On May 17, Pennsylvanians will go to the polls to pick the candidates who will be on the ballot in the fall. They will narrow down the wide field for a GOP candidate in the governor’s race and the equally broad options on both tickets for U.S. Senate, not to mention all those state legislator races.
But independents are left out.
It might seem obvious that only Republicans get to vote in the Republican primary. Same for Democrats. But in most states, there are options. Only nine states have primaries as locked down as Pennsylvania’s. Others might allow for independents to pick one ballot on Election Day. Others allow day-of-voting registration, which provides more flexibility.
“The primary election really is often the only election … so if you don’t get to vote in the primary, you basically don’t have a vote,” said David Thornburgh, executive director of Ballot PA, in a recent Spotlight PA story.
For example, in a local or state legislative race, incumbents can have an edge. With cross registration or write-in voting, they might sew up a race in the primaries, leaving independents without a say. That makes it hard to keep those voters engaged. State lawmakers are looking at ways to tweak how we vote on the heels of dissatisfaction with the 2019 voting law changes. While they are at it, they should consider something to give 15% of the state’s voters the opportunity for engagement they deserve.
Opening the primaries more would be a way to increase voter turnout, get more people participating and let the parties make a real case for their platforms to the very body of voters they most need to excite.
