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Danville resident and US Marine Corps veteran LJ Pocsi writes in the Sunbury Daily Item that “Opening Pennsylvania’s primaries is not a win for one party or the other. It is a win for voters. Taxpayers fund these elections. Every taxpayer should be able to participate. When more voters can weigh in earlier, candidates must compete for broader support, and the eventual winners are accountable to all of us, not only to a party base.” She closes with a direct address to both la

The proportion of Pennsylvanians registered as independent or third-party voters has steadily risen from 12% in the 2005 general election to 16% in 2025 , according to data from the Department of State. “There is something in the air that is making a bunch of people say, ‘I don’t want to identify — at least initially — with either party,’ " said Stephen Medvic, a political scientist at Franklin & Marshall College. “And parties have to take that seriously. They have to ask the

“During the May 19 Philadelphia primary, more than one in five voters in Pennsylvania's 3rd District had no say in who their next representative in Congress will be. As a registered independent who lives in the district, I was one of them. Again…It's time for politicians to start paying more attention to the direction, or that growing group of voters might direct them right out of office one day.”

“It is well past time for Pennsylvania to enfranchise independent voters in all elections. Aside from democratic fairness, it should also help moderate some of the candidates both parties are now putting before voters in the general election and lead to a more practical approach to policy and governance.”

Before the primary, WTAE spoke with Jeff Jalbrzikowski, a Pittsburgh-area leader of Veterans for All Voters, who would like to see open primaries in Pennsylvania. "What we want to see are open primary elections in all 50 states. We believe, and statistics show, that there's more democratic representation when everyone has a choice in those primary elections," Jalbrzikowski said. "As civically engaged citizens, we should do what we can right now to represent those ideals. Mayb

“Right now in Pennsylvania, we have a sleeping giant in our electorate,” said Brett Loyd, a researcher and campaign strategist with the firm Bullfinch Group and a founding partner of Independent Center, an advocacy group for independent voters. The 1.48 million independents in Pennsylvania contribute to the economy, care about schools and pay taxes used to fund elections, he said, yet they’re excluded in a pivotal cycle each spring. “So they pay but they aren’t allowed to voi

Research and commentary continue to point to the same structural issue: today’s primary system often empowers a narrow slice of voters. New analysis from R Street argues that while primaries were meant to democratize candidate selection, they now frequently reward candidates who appeal to smaller, more ideologically concentrated electorates — rather than the broader public they will ultimately represent.

Most attention goes to the general election, but in many districts, the real decision happens in the primary. Once a candidate wins their party’s nomination, the outcome in November is often a foregone conclusion. A recent episode of Top of Mind with Julie Rose takes a closer look at this dynamic, asking a simple question: if primaries are where power is decided, why are so many voters excluded?

A new Spotlight PA analysis highlights a familiar dynamic in Pennsylvania: in many districts, the primary is the election that determines who will ultimately hold office. But those contests don’t reflect the full electorate. Independent voters — the fastest-growing group of voters in the state — are unable to participate, even as these races shape control of the legislature and the direction of policy.

In 2024, just 7% voters elected 87% of U.S. House races. Nick Troiano, executive director of Unite America , said there are some serious democratic issues raised by the fact that so few voters will have so much power to decide what party will control Congress. For one, he says, primary voters are not representative of the broader American electorate. According to an analysis from his group, primary voters tend to be older, whiter, wealthier, more educated and more ideological

Nearly half of Americans now identify as independents, but closed primaries prevent them from having a meaningful voice in selecting candidates , highlighting the need for more open and inclusive primary systems. As younger generations increasingly identify as independent—more than half of Gen Z—this trend will only grow. Reforming primaries, including advocating for semi-open or open systems, is one way independents can translate their numbers into real influence.

Paul Selbst of Philadelphia wrote a letter to the editor advocating for open primaries in Pennsylvania , saying, “ These primaries are critical in electing candidates who will occupy offices that will affect the lives of all Pennsylvanians, regardless of party. But we are stuck with closed primaries in which only party members can vote. So in this commonwealth, all independents are left out in the cold…Many states have done away with closed primaries, but not in Pennsylvania,

Independents choose their status for many valid reasons: to keep political beliefs private from an employer, to avoid perceived bias in service, or simply because neither major party reflects their values. Requiring them to temporarily register with a party to vote in primaries is an unnecessary barrier—and it undermines fair representation. Addressing his county’s election office error last fall, when a poll worker printed the poll books for the primary instead of the genera

A new study, Reassessing Extremism, Polarization, and Constraint with Continuous Policy Questions , challenges the conventional wisdom about a deeply divided electorate. When Americans are allowed to express their views along a continuum rather than in binary choices, most land in the middle across a wide range of issues. The findings show meaningful overlap between Democrats and Republicans on every issue tested, with only modest average disagreement. In other words, the ele

A Dalton resident writes that PA should hold open primaries, noting that " Independent voters are denied equal treatment under Pennsylvania’s archaic 1937 election code, by being barred from voting in primary elections. Pennsylvania is only one of a handful of states with fully closed primaries. Other states have open nonpartisan primaries or open partisan primaries in which an unaffiliated voter may select the Republican or Democratic ballot. Pennsylvania needs to grant equ

A Philadelphian advocates for open primaries, writing , " Welcome to 2026. The midterms are here, and the political establishment is already wringing its hands about youth turnout. We’ll hear the same old story: Young voters are “apathetic.” But the system insists this is a motivation issue, when it is clearly a design flaw. In Pennsylvania, 91% of state legislative races are effectively decided in the primary — an election 1.4 million non-party affiliated voters are legally

According to a new Gallup poll , a record-high 45% of U.S. adults identified as political independents in 2025, surpassing the 43% measured in 2014, 2023 and 2024. Meanwhile, equal shares of U.S. adults — 27% each — identified as either Democrats or Republicans. In most years since Gallup began regularly conducting its polls by telephone in 1988, independents have been the largest political group. However, the independent percentage has increased markedly in the past 15 years

An episode of the American Enterprise Institute's "Understanding Congress" podcast asks, "What is the Primary Problem?" featuring Nick Troiano. He is the author of The Primary Solution: Rescuing Our Democracy from the Fringes (Simon & Schuster, 2024). and the executive director of Unite America , an organization that advocates for nonpartisan election reform and alternatives to partisan primary elections. Nick says, " Every voter should have the freedom to vote for whomever

Dennis Miller of Veterans for All Voters spoke with ABC27’s Dennis Owens on “This Week in Pennsylvania,” which airs on Nexstar stations in every market in Pennsylvania. “There is a deep feeling within the veteran community that democracy is something to be fought for ,” said Dennis Miller, And we as a block…did so. So, when there’s an opportunity to be i nvolved in that democratic process , we are very serious about doing so.” The discussion on open primaries starts at the 7:

It’s not news that in Philadelphia, most races are decided in the primary election, rather than the general election . There ar e 170,723 Independent or third party voters in Philadelphia - many of them union members who can’t cast a vote in primaries . “As partisanship division increases with each passing day,” says Bauder, “We must ensure that everyone has a seat at the table when it comes to determining our future. Pennsylvanians deserve an electoral system where all ou