July 28, 2025
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A group of independent voters filed a petition to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court this month claiming the state's closed primary system violates the free and equal elections clause in the state constitution.
Independent voters are hoping to open up Pennsylvania's closed primary elections, with a group filing a petition to the state Supreme Court this month claiming the system violates the free and equal elections clause in the state constitution.
Joe Powers, an adjunct professor at Saint Joseph's University who teaches courses in Pennsylvania politics, says this could alter the political makeup of candidates who are elected.
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"(Independents) don’t get to vote in what are sometimes the most important races," Powers said. "If we were to change this system, we would elect more moderate candidates."
Pennsylvania is one of 14 states that has a closed primary, which requires voters to be registered to a political party to participate in its primary. In the state, there are 3.8 million registered Democrats, 3.6 million Republicans and about 1.4 million others, according to the Associated Press.
While Pennsylvania remains a swing state on the national level, there are few swing districts within the state, which can lead to situations where primaries can be the de facto general election. In Philadelphia, for instance, state records show there are 767,574 registered Democrats compared with only 130,925 Republicans, so the winner of the Democratic primary typically wins the general election in the city. Because of how partisan most districts are, Powers estimated in state races for 203 House seats and 50 Senate seats, only about 30 are truly decided in the general election.
Primaries also cost state and local governments millions of dollars, and Powers raised the question: "Why should independent voters be required to pay for these elections?"
But there is pushback to making the change by people who believe the members of a political party should be allowed to pick their candidates.
"The current system is an incumbent protection plan," Powers said. "If you're in a strongly Republican district, you would like to have Republicans voting for you in your next primary race. And conversely, if you are in a strongly Democratic area, you would like to have only Democratic voters being allowed to vote in the state primaries."
While efforts have persisted for decades to make this switch, Powers points to young independent voters as an impetus for this current push.
"I've been following Pennsylvania politics for about 50 years, and there have been repeated efforts to do something like this," Power said. "I think this one has more legs because of the increased numbers of independent voters ... (which has) doubled over the last 25 years. There are many particularly younger voters now that do not want to be members of a political party. And so I think it's the increased numbers of independents that's really driving the importance of the issue right now."
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