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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:

Commentary on R Street details how 1.4M independent and minor party voters are shut out of PA's primaries. " Pennsylvania a prime...

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

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

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

Four-time Super Bowl Champion and Vietnam veteran Rocky Bleier is speaking out: It’s time to let all veterans vote in every election.

A new independent study from The Perryman Group finds that restricting voter access in primaries could have a massive economic impact. If Texas were to close its primaries, the state could lose: $28.2 billion  in economic output 219,000+ jobs  by 2050 Why? Restricting voter access reduces participation, which hurts earnings, spending, and long-term growth. For Pennsylvania, this underscores a critical point: opening primaries isn’t just about fairness—it’s about the health o

From PoliticsPA: The voter landscape is shifting—fast. Democrats have lost ~158,000  registered voters since last October Republicans have lost ~30,000 But Independents are up a whopping 134,000 registrations  (+3.11%) Some of the fastest-growing counties for independents: Montgomery  (+5.54%) Lancaster  (+5.29%) Berks  (+5.27%) Plus strong 4%+ growth in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, and York These trends only reinforce the need to update our primary system to reflect where v

Larry Ceisler and Alan Novak dig into independents’ growing share of the electorate, whether independents vote predictably, and what the future of open primaries in PA could look like. The open primaries portion begins at 43:40 .

Philadelphia City Commissioner Seth Bluestein recently weighed in on what it would mean to include independents in primaries—and why now is the moment to take the issue seriously.

An op-ed in R Street by Jonathan Madison outlines why Pennsylvania needs a semi-open primary. Pennsylvania’s closed primary election...

Carter Walker writes for VoteBeat Pennsylvania: A 2024 Spotlight PA analysis found that the vast majority of state legislative races on...

Sen. Devlin Robinson writes in Pennlive : The primaries are a huge opportunity to let voters make a difference in local politics. But if...

The Trib-Live editorial board articulates why primary elections matter: The primaries are always lower, even for presidential years. And...

Erie News Now reports on election reform bills pending in Pennsylvania - among them, a bill which would allow independent, unaffiliated...

Dennis Miller, a retired Marine, authored an op-ed in the Delaware Valley Journal where he outlines how Pennsylvania veterans are...