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Bill to allow unaffiliated voters to vote in Pennsylvania primaries passes state House

votebeat.org · 6h · first reportShare

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Pennsylvania’s free newsletter here. For the first time in recent memory, a bill to open up Pennsylvania’s primary elections to unaffiliated voters has passed the state House. The bill still faces tough odds of becoming law, particularly since there are only two months left in the 2025-2026 legislative session. But the bill’s passage in the lower chamber represents a milestone for advocates. “There’s nothing more foundational to our democracy, to build institutional accountability, than ensuring everyone has a right to vote and a voice in the democratic process,” state Rep. Jared Solomon (D., Philadelphia), the bill’s prime sponsor, said. He said the bill would “open up the process, get new voices in, lower the political temperature, lower the extremism we see in our politics, and make sure that these voices have a stake and a say in the democratic proce