Time to give Independents a primary vote

The Pennsylvania primary is fast approaching, with counties mailing ballots to voters who choose to use mail or dropbox and at the same time gearing up for polls to be open May 17.

On the ballot in this primary will be candidates for Congress in local districts and statewide races for U.S. senator and governor. Also on the ballot are state House and state Senate seats, in some cases representing a different mix of municipalities due to redistricting.

At stake are not final victories, but rather candidates who will appear on the ballot in the fall as either Republican or Democratic nominees. Candidates in the primary are vying against others seeking a party’s nomination. While primaries have historically produced low turnout and tend to generate less interest than general elections, they are in many ways more significant because the smaller pool of voters has a larger voice in determining who gets to be on the ballot.

Think of the primary as the elimination bout that decides who’s in the ring for the final fight .

Primaries in Pennsylvania leave a lot of voters out of the selection opportunity. Pennsylvania is one of only nine states that doesn’t allow voting by citizens who register as Independents. More than 1.2 million voters, or 14 percent, are not affiliated with the Democratic or Republican Party in Pennsylvania, and thus can’t cast a ballot in the primary.

The irony is that in today’s highly polarized environment, more voters are becoming frustrated by both parties and choosing to affiliate with neither. In Pennsylvania, those voters are denied the chance to have a voice in selecting candidates who might make a difference and improve the state of our democracy.

Denying Independent voters the right to vote disenfranchises their right to have a say and entrenches the hard-line Republican and Democrat candidates without challenge or engagement by all citizens. That’s dangerous for democracy and just plain wrong.

A movement to address this issue and bring Independent voters into the primary is gaining ground in Pennsylvania, and although too late for this election, we hope to see change in the future. State Sen. Lisa Boscala, D-Lehigh County, has introduced legislation that would allow unaffiliated/Independent voters the ability to choose a primary to participate in, either Democratic or Republican.

Several similar bills have been introduced by colleagues on both sides of the aisle, and grassroots organizations are speaking out in favor of changing the antiquated primary system, according to Boscola.

“Now, more than ever, we need citizens to be engaged. If we are going to steer this democracy to calm waters and take our government back from the party bosses and the fringes of each party, it will take every voter getting involved and making their opinions known,” Boscola said.

In another quirk of Pennsylvania election laws, candidates in critical local races for school boards and judges can cross-file, which means their names appear on both Republican and Democratic ballots in the primary. This system which moves the top vote getters on each side into the general election often results in some candidates appearing on both party lines and essentially winning the seat.

A local school board could have a new makeup and the Independent voters in that district would have missed the opportunity to have a say. “Why are we disenfranchising a segment of registered voters from having a voice in whether school property taxes are raised, who the next superintendent, district justice or county judge should be?” said Boscola.

Independents point out that they pay taxes just like everyone else, funding an election in which they are not allowed to participate. They call it classic taxation without representation.

This is another one of those barometers in which Pennsylvania is an outlier among states, and not in a good way. Forty-one states allow Independents to vote in primaries.

After this election and with some new faces as well as reinvigorated veterans in the state General Assembly, it’s time to stop disenfranchising Independents. Adopt SB346 to give everyone a vote.