Pennsylvania House Approves Open Primary Bill with Bipartisan Support
Pennsylvania’s 1.5 million unaffiliated voters are one step closer to being able to vote in primary elections after the State House of Representatives approved legislation on Sept. 29 to adopt open primaries. Now awaiting consideration in the State Senate, HB 280 eliminates the requirement that voters must be affiliated with a political party in order to vote in future primary elections. This clears the way for unaffiliated voters to choose a ballot for one party’s primary each election cycle. Enacting this policy would end the current inequitable practice of using public taxpayer dollars to finance the elections of private political parties while giving more Pennsylvanians an opportunity to vote in the contests that most often determine the eventual winner of the general election.
Pennsylvania is currently one of eight states that follows a closed primary model in which voters are required to affiliate with a political party as a condition of voting in primary elections. The other 42 states allow for at least some level of participation by independent voters, ranging from states like Connecticut and Idaho, where each party has the option of opening their partisan primary to independents, to states that hold nonpartisan primaries for most offices, like Alaska and California.
Sponsored by Democratic Rep. Jared Solomon, HB 280 would move Pennsylvania from a closed primary to a partially open primary where unaffiliated voters could choose to cast a ballot in the primary election for one of the major parties. Members of a political party would still be restricted to voting in the primary election corresponding with their registration, thereby limiting concerns over crossover voting. Most critically, all eligible Pennsylvania voters would have the legal right to vote in primary elections without being forced to formally affiliate with any political party.
Moving to an open primary would introduce a basic measure of fairness into Pennsylvania’s election system by allowing all eligible voters to participate in publicly funded elections. Political parties often argue (correctly) that, as private organizations, they have the right to determine the process for selecting nominees. However, taxpayers should not be obligated to pay for elections that exclude certain segments of the electorate. In the case of Pennsylvania, this bloc of 1.5 million unaffiliated voters accounts for nearly 17 percent of the total statewide registration.
Parties opting to hold closed primaries should either cover the cost directly or reimburse election offices for associated expenses. Alternatively, public funding of an open primary is justified, as eligible voters have the option to participate.
Beyond fairness in funding, HB 280 would create opportunities for more Pennsylvanians to have a say in the election that determines the eventual winner, which in many legislative and congressional districts is the primary rather than the general. When the results of the November election are all but guaranteed because the demographic makeup of the district overwhelmingly favors one party or the other, the real competition occurs in the primary. In fact, approximately 28 percent of the races for Pennsylvania state representative feature only a single candidate on the general election ballot.
Under a closed model, these low turnout primary elections create an incentive for candidates to appeal to a small segment of the party base who show up to vote. By comparison, a semi-open primary gives candidates an opportunity to expand their base of support to include unaffiliated voters. This could result in a moderating effect on the candidates; however, even if these voters share many of the same policy positions as the party faithful, then including more voters in the process gives additional legitimacy and buy-in to the overall election process.
The adoption of HB 280 on a bipartisan basis is an important milestone in the effort to enact open primaries in Pennsylvania. While it remains to be seen if the Senate will act before the conclusion of the 2026 legislative session, it is clear that the continued dissatisfaction with the current two-party system is creating real opportunities to advance meaningful primary reform that expands access to the ballot for all Pennsylvanians.