I will not be voting in next Tuesday’s primary elections. It’s not that I don’t want to; it’s because that as a registered nonpartisan, I am not eligible to vote in Pennsylvania’s closed primaries.

Since 1960 when I became eligible to vote upon reaching the legal age of 21 back then, I have voted in few primaries - only those where there were either statewide or local referendums. As a registered nonpartisan, I could cast ballots on these questions but was not permitted to vote for any candidate. Despite my occasional voting in primaries, I have a perfect record of casting ballots in general elections - 62 in a row going into 2022.

When you think about it, voting is one of the most basic rights in our republic form of government, yet about 1.3 million of the state’s 8.7 million registered voters (15%) view ourselves as nonpartisan, independent or members of fringe parties that do not qualify for ballot inclusion, and when it comes to primary voting, all of us are in the same boat.

With the emergence of the two-party political system in our country, Republicans and Democrats have become so powerful that they can control who can vote. In fact, this system has been around so long that we accept it almost without question as a way of political life.

Because of the gerrymandering of legislative districts in many states, the primary elections are often more important than the general election, because whoever emerges as winner of the primary can be a shoo-in for victory in November based on lopsided voter registration numbers favoring one party over the other.

A recent nonpartisan study showed that just 36 of Pennsylvania’s 203 newly redrawn legislative districts are considered to be “competitive,” while the rest lean either to one party or the other, mostly Republican. The study points out that a district is considered “competitive” if one party does not have more than a 55%-45% voter registration edge.

In our area these days, for example, a Republican running for countywide office in Schuylkill and Carbon counties is almost guaranteed election because of favorable voter registration numbers. In Lehigh County, however, Democrats are more likely to be elected countywide because of Democratic superiority in voter registration. Of course, there are exceptions. One of the most notable is long-serving Lehigh County Sheriff Jim Martin (24 years), a Republican.

When it comes to closed primaries, Pennsylvania is one of 14 states that still has them, and, make no mistake, the two major parties want to keep it that way. There are 15 states where at least one party conducts semi-closed primaries for congressional and statewide elections. Twenty-one states have open primaries for at least one of the major parties.

Pennsylvania’s closed primaries were codified in the 1937 Election Code as a way to discourage the coming and going of numerous short-lived new political parties that critics said made for long and confusing ballots for voters.

A Stanford University study showed that about 80% of statewide elections in the United States are settled in the primaries.

A bipartisan bill (SB 690) has been introduced in Harrisburg that would allow unaffiliated voters to support a candidate in either primary. The bill’s sponsors - Republican Dan Laughlin of Erie County and Democrat Maria Collett of Bucks County - said the bill has been assigned to the State Government Committee for consideration.

It’s interesting to note that a previous version of this bill was adopted by the Senate by a 42-8 vote in 2019. Among those voting for the bill was Sen. David Argall, R-Schuylkill, who is now chair of the State Government Committee. Despite the bill’s success in the Senate, it never saw the light of day in the House of Representatives and remained bottled up in committee, where it languished until the end of the legislative session and died.

Argall said he still supports the legislation in principle but told Spotlight PA that he wants to learn more specifics about the bill’s potential effects and the views of his committee members before releasing it from committee.

In a statement to Spotlight PA, Argall said, “Some states may allow Republicans to vote in the Democratic, Democrats to vote in the Republican primary. That kind of free-for-all can lead to mischief, so, the devil is always going to be in the details.”

Argall’s reference is to what is known as crossover voting where a registered voter of one party can vote in the other’s primary. I am totally opposed to this, because of the amount of manipulation it could cause. The Pennsylvania bill recently introduced does not allow this crossover voting. Only those registered voters who are unaffiliated with either major party would be permitted to cast a primary ballot in one or the other primary.

Critics argue that independents have no right to decide the nominee of either major party, because voters with like-minded ideas should make these primary decisions. Allowing independent voters to cast ballots in primaries will disrupt the primary process, they believe.

Obviously, I disagree.

By Bruce Frassinelli | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.