Open primaries getting long look from Pennsylvania lawmakers

Jun. 22—HARRISBURG — The conversation on potentially opening Pennsylvania's primary elections to independent voters continued Thursday in the state House.

Lawmakers heard from fair elections advocates who said inviting voters with no party affiliation would increase voter participation and allow major party candidates to begin courting independents earlier in an election cycle.

Two county elections officials, however, warned about the potential increased burden on elections staff and poll workers just a few years after mail-in voting was expanded universally.

"This is a recipe for there to be lots of lawsuits," Thad Hall, director of elections in Mercer County, said of potential errors in administering an open primary.

Hall and others testified during a hearing of the State Government Subcommittee on Campaign Finance and Elections. He said his county would have to order an additional 19,000 ballots at each primary election under current registration totals. He challenged whether voter turnout would substantially improve in an open format, and he said the change could add to a "more chaotic and contentious" atmosphere at polling places.

"Adding 19,000 ballots to ballot bags has an array of downstream effects. It effects my ballot security, my ballot counting and my ballot storage," Hall said.

Pennsylvania has nearly 1.3 million voters who are independent — about 928,000 without a party registration and another 349,000 registered to a third party. Combined, they represent about 15% of the commonwealth's entire electorate.

There are 41 states with varied types of open primaries. Pennsylvania's are closed — party members are restricted to their own tickets and independents are left out except for ballot questions and special elections.

Bipartisan proposals in the state House and Senate would open primaries to the non-party affiliates only. They'd choose to either vote the Democrat or Republican ticket.

State Rep. Marla Brown, R-Lawrence, offered House Bill 976. Democratic state representatives Jared Solomon and Chris Raab, both representing parts of Philadelphia, introduced House Bill 979. State Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie, and Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Lehigh/Northampton, offered Senate Bill 400.

All three proposals have near identical language.

During hearing testimony Thursday, Solomon said turnout in Philadelphia in the May primary fell below 30%. He estimated states that opened primaries experienced a 10% increase.

Brown said as elections and society evolves, primaries are viewed by many electors as indistinguishable from general elections. Often, she said, primaries are more competitive and many voters are left out.

"In many races and in many communities, the primary election is the only real competitive stage for the electoral calendar. The increase in geographical partisanship and the decline in ticket-splitting have led to reliable partisan outcomes in many general election contests in districts at a local, state and federal level," Brown said.

Reps. Dawn Keefer, R-York, and Tarah Probst, D-Monroe/Pike, expressed concern about voters potentially selecting a particular party's ballot in order to negatively manipulate that party's outcome.

Jeremy Gruber, senior vice president with the advocacy group Open Primaries, said the proposed format in Pennsylvania wouldn't allow for such large-scale manipulation. As it stands, the state already allows voters to change party affiliation before and after an election.

By opening elections, Gruber said the major parties could get a jump start on winning the favor of independents.

"I'm an independent and I can tell you right now, we decide every election in this country and in this state. Every close election is decided by independents," Gruber said.

Dori Sawyer, director of voter services in Montgomery County, estimated 2.6 million additional ballots would need to be printed statewide.

In her county alone, Sawyer said, there are 95,500 unaffiliated voters. She said her county would have to print 191,000 additional ballots, and added that additional staff would be needed for processing ballot requests, testing polling equipment and adhering to quality assurance measures.

"I think the more variables you create the greater the risk is for an inadvertent mistake," Sawyer said.