Thinking about Elections

WHO CAN(NOT) VOTE: THE PRIMARIES. Many November elections are actually decided months earlier in the primaries. In districts that are heavily Republican or Democrat, whoever wins the primary will predictably win in November, so the real contest is in the primaries. Yet in some states not all registered voters can vote in the primaries.

States that allow only registered Democrats/Republicans to vote in primaries—closed primary states—don’t allow voters unaffiliated with the two dominant parties to cast a ballot in the primary races. These unaffiliated voters are thus disenfranchised. This is the basis for a lawsuit challenging PA’s closed primaries. Disenfranchising unaffiliated voters reduces their voting power compared to partisan voters. It means that partisan voters have greater influence over election outcomes overall. That, the lawsuit says, violates the PA Constitution which states that all citizens have the right to participate equally in the electoral process.

Unaffiliated voters are about 1/3 of voters nationwide, and their numbers are growing. In PA it’s 1.4 million voters, but since many people register as a Democrat or Republican just to be able to vote in primaries, the number of unaffiliated voters would likely be higher if PA had open primaries. PA is among a shrinking number of states with closed primaries. In the past year NM and NE opened their primaries to all registered voters so now there are only eight states with closed primaries.

There are, however, gradations and variations in what “open” and “closed” primaries mean. Primaries are categorized as closed, partially closed, partially open, open to unaffiliated voters, open, or multi-party. Check out what your state does and leave a comment about it. (Two links with this post.)

https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/state-primary-election-types#top

https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2026/03/closed-primary-open-lawsuit-unaffiliated-third-party-pennsylvania-primary-elections/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Will a lawsuit finally open PA s primaries?&utm_campaign=PA Post 03 10 26 (Copy)