It’s past time to reform Maryland’s primary elections | GUEST COMMENTARY

By LILY QI

PUBLISHED: November 21, 2025 at 3:49 PM EST | UPDATED: November 21, 2025 at 4:13 PM EST

In 2018, I ran for state delegate in Maryland District 15, which has the state’s highest concentration of Asian populations, most of whom are immigrants, with Chinese as the largest group. It should have been a huge cultural advantage for a Chinese immigrant like me. Yet, most of those voters were unaffiliated, making them ineligible to vote in Maryland’s closed primary elections. Since the primary elections were the only competitive elections in most parts of our state, especially in our deep-blue Montgomery County, these voters were shut out of “The Election” that would decide the outcomes — the Democratic primary election.

At Chinese community-hosted meet-and-greets, I spent most of my time explaining our election system to independent and first-time voters, rather than discussing policy issues that mattered to our community. In Chinese restaurants, friends’ living rooms and on ethnic social media, we pushed out bilingual messages on why and how to register as Democratic voters. Our micro-targeting paid off — the number of Chinese Americans in my district who voted in the Democratic primary election that year tripled from the previous midterm election.

We were proud of what we accomplished, but we shouldn’t have to do that.

Maryland is now home to nearly a million independent voters, about one in four voters. This reflects a national trend. Many are party-averse immigrants from countries where politics often evoke fear and distrust. In fact, immigrant-heavy Hispanic and Asian communities top the list, with 52% and 41% of registered voters identifying as independents, respectively. Another fast-growing cohort of independent voters is young people, who are significantly more diverse than their parents’ generation and less likely to be party loyalists.

Often, independent voters are unaware that in a state like Maryland, they can only vote for the non-partisan school board positions, with all other options intentionally left blank.

This is undemocratic.

Across the country, most elections are now decided by primary elections in both red and blue states, with many elected officials only concerned about being “primaried” in their next election. It rewards extremism on both sides when the voices in the middle are silenced, and candidates have no incentive to seek the middle ground. Yet neither of the two major political parties has shown much interest in making our primaries more open and inclusive.

Over the years, I have introduced legislation to allow unaffiliated voters to affiliate with a party during early voting, when in-person voter registration is permitted. It should have been an easy lift. Yet it was met with skepticism from both parties. A common argument against that idea is that primary elections are a party’s nomination process. This argument ignores today’s demographic realities and flies in the face of democracy. Primary elections are funded by taxpayers, not political parties, and therefore should be open to all registered voters.

Another concern is that someone might game the system by remaining independent, allowing them to be flexible in choosing a ballot or picking the weakest candidates in the other party’s primaries. Ironically, it is our current system that encourages people to game the system, with some independent and third-party voters feeling compelled to register as members of the majority party to influence the outcome.

Making our primaries more open and inclusive is not convenient for politicians or candidates. One Maryland legislator did not hide his concern: “If we pass the bill, I would have to spend more resources to reach more voters.” Yes. That is the point.

Voting rights are civil rights. Making our elections more democratic is fundamental to our rights as Americans, and should be the new frontier of our civil rights movement.

Over the years, states like Maryland have expanded voting centers and voting hours, installed drop boxes and made mail-in voting permanent. Yet these measures simply made it easier for existing voters to cast their ballots without allowing more voters to vote in elections that matter.

The recent federal shutdown — the longest in history — serves as a stark reminder of our broken politics. As more Americans are turned off by political divisions, we should use every tool to bring our politics to the middle, where most Americans are. The best way to achieve this is by bringing the middle into politics.

Lily Qi is a Democrat representing District 15 in Montgomery County in the Maryland House of Delegates.