More than 500,000 Pennsylvanians ineligible to vote on Tuesday, will that ever change?

(WHTM) – Pennsylvania’s primary Election Day is Tuesday, May 20, but more than 500,000 voters are not allowed to participate despite their taxes helping pick up the $75 million election price tag.

For 88 years, Pennsylvania has had “closed” primary elections, meaning only registered Republicans and Democrats can vote, and they can only vote for people in their party.

This means Independents and third-party voters do not have a say in their options for the November election.

David Thornburgh is Chair of Ballot PA and says if Independents could vote in primaries, candidates would have to appeal to the less partisan voters.

“You say, ‘Well, how do you know they’re less partisan?’ Because if they were more partisan, they’d be Republicans or Democrats,” said Thornburgh. “So you bring those folks into the mix. You’re going to get more competition. You’re going to get more responsive candidates.”

State Rep Jared Solomon (D-Philadelphia) says northeast Philadelphia precincts could see less than 10% turnout on Tuesday in an off-year election.

Getting more primary voters out is one of the motivations behind House Bill 280, which would still have Republicans and Democrats vote for their own parties, but would allow non-affiliated voters to pick which primary to cast a vote for.

“Forty other states have done this; this is not the new shiny thing on the block,” explained Solomon.

Republican Russ Diamond says he was an Independent but doesn’t like the power this bill would give them.

“(Independents) can just walk up to the polling place and say, today, ‘I’m a Democrat’ or ‘today I’m a Republican,’ when I, as a Republican or anybody here as a Democrat, can’t do that.”

Republicans also argue it’s so easy to register to vote, and Independents aren’t blocked from participating; they’re choosing not to. The GOP also fears mischief.

“If two Democrats were running against me, I could purposely vote in the Democratic primary, vote for the worse of the two candidates,” argued State Rep. Brad Roae, a Republican who chairs the State Government Committee. “Just, you know, mess up their primary.”

“The short reason,” Thornburgh claims, “why politicians oppose this is because they feel like they got elected by a set of rules and they’re not that willing to change those set of rules, which is a little paranoid.”

House Bill 280 passed on party lines out of committee, which has happened in the past; similar bills have been kicked around since the early 1990s. Thornburgh hopes the door soon opens to open primaries.

“Pennsylvania is yeah, we’re we’re standing increasingly alone,” Thornburgh says. “And I don’t want to be the last to make the statement that every voter should be able to participate in every election.”