{"id":117857,"date":"2023-04-26T21:47:53","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T01:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=117857"},"modified":"2023-04-26T21:49:24","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T01:49:24","slug":"senator-boscola-introduces-open-primary-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=117857","title":{"rendered":"SENATOR BOSCOLA INTRODUCES OPEN PRIMARY LEGISLATION"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harrisburg, PA \u2013April 26, 2023<\/span><\/b><\/span>\u2013 Senators Lisa M. <\/span><\/span>Boscola<\/span><\/span> (D-Northampton) and Dan Laughlin (R-Erie) today introduced a bipartisan proposal to repeal closed primary elections in Pennsylvania, allowing registered voters who selected \u2018none\u2019 or \u2018no affiliation\u2019 on their voter registration form to exercise their voting rights during a primary election.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cMost Pennsylvanian\u2019s are not aware that if they do not register Democratic or Republican, you will likely be turned away on primary election day,\u201d <\/span><\/span>Boscola<\/span><\/span> said. \u201cIt is shameful because not everyone can identify within the two-party system we currently have. That choice shouldn\u2019t silence their vote.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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This bill will restore voting access to more than 1.2 million voters in Pennsylvania, who identify as \u2018independent\u2019 voters and are not registered to one of the two largest political parties: Democratic and Republican. According to the Pennsylvania Department of State, that number of unaffiliated voters has risen by 51,816 between 2015 and 2021.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cLook outside of Pennsylvania and you will see that most states have open primaries, and it hasn\u2019t created chaos. In fact, it empowers more voters and will likely increase voter participation. That\u2019s a good thing,\u201d <\/span><\/span>Boscola<\/span><\/span> said.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Pennsylvania is 1 of only 9 remaining states that bar independent voters from participating in primaries, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. These states include Delaware, New York, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, and New Mexico. Senate Bill 400 would bring Pennsylvania in line with <\/span><\/span>the majority of<\/span><\/span> states that have modified or open primaries.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cSB 400 isn\u2019t some grand scheme to skew primary election results to affect the fall general election outcome. This is simply about engaging the voters and letting them vote. For us to prevent them from doing that, thereby ignoring their opinions and voices, is just wrong. Addressing that wrong is one of the most important things that can be done as a lawmaker,\u201d said Laughlin.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0Senator <\/span><\/span>Boscola<\/span><\/span> and Laughlin have already gained over a dozen cosponsors from members of both parties in the Senate. However, the issue faces an uphill battle despite broad public support and an increasing majority of the American public who self-describe themselves as Independents. A number believed to be 49% of American voters, according to a Gallup survey in March of 2023.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Regarding those opposed to the bill, <\/span><\/span>Boscola<\/span><\/span> said, \u201cI would like to know, what are they afraid of?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Information provided to TVL by:
\nKurt J. Derr
\nOffice of Senator Lisa Boscola
\nOne East Broad Street, Suite 120
\nBethlehem, PA 18018<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harrisburg, PA \u2013April 26, 2023\u2013 Senators Lisa M. Boscola (D-Northampton) and Dan Laughlin (R-Erie) today introduced a bipartisan proposal to repeal closed primary elections in Pennsylvania, allowing registered voters who … Continue reading SENATOR BOSCOLA INTRODUCES OPEN PRIMARY LEGISLATION<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Lisa-Boscola.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/112559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}