Learn About Proposal to Change Pennsylvania from Closed to Open Primaries

From Spotlight PA (https://www.spotlightpa.org/):

Pennsylvania lawmakers are weighing a bill that would let voters who aren’t affiliated with a political party vote in primaries.

Former elected officials and government experts told the House State Government Committee in a hearing on Tuesday that Pennsylvania’s current closed primary system is disenfranchising 1.3 million people.

Two bills with bipartisan support are currently awaiting consideration in the General Assembly. Each would change the rules and allow independent voters to choose one party’s primary to participate in.

Currently, voters unaffiliated with either of the two major parties can only vote on ballot questions that coincide with primary elections.

Read Spotlight PA’s full rundown here.

THE CONTEXT: Some critics of open primaries worry about “party raiding,” wherein unaffiliated voters strategically use their vote to pick an unelectable candidate or one who doesn’t represent a party’s values. Evidence shows the practice is neither widespread nor particularly likely to succeed.

Open primary critics also argue, like state Rep. Paul Schemel (R., Franklin) did at Tuesday’s hearing, that primaries are an internal party activity and should exclude anyone who isn’t registered accordingly.

But David Thornburgh — chair of Ballot PA, a project of the good-government group Committee of 70 — said the constitutional right to vote overshadows any justification to exclude independents (many of whom have their officials chosen for them when general elections are uncontested).

Pennsylvania is one of nine states that has closed primary elections, meaning only registered Democrats and Republicans can vote for candidates from those parties and choose who will advance to the ballot in November.