PUBLISHED: December 16, 2024 at 5:00 AM EST
Unaffiliated, Green Party and Libertarian voters don’t get to participate in primary
elections in Maryland, with few exceptions, but their tax dollars still contribute to the
cost — including for special elections that run into the millions.
Under state law, Maryland’s “partially closed” primary system shuts out voters
unaffiliated with the state’s two major political parties, the Democrats and
Republicans.
“It’s a problem, and it’s getting worse,” said Todd Eberly, political science professor
at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. “More and more people are choosing not to be a
part of a party. If parties are thinking, well, closed primaries will force them to be part
of a party, that has not happened at all. The presence of closed primaries has not
resulted in more people coming back to party. The number of unaffiliated people just
continues to grow.”
There are over 907,000 unaffiliated voters in Maryland, and the number has grown
every year for at least the last five years. In 2020, there were 788,812 unaffiliated
voters.
State Election Administrator Jared DeMarinis said county election offices bear the
costs for local races, like the upcoming special election in Prince George’s County,
which is estimated to cost $4 million — $2 million for the primary and $2 million for
the general, according to the local election board.
“If it’s a county special election, that is paid for with county funds,” DeMarinis said. “It
is their office to bear.”
In Prince George’s County, there are 99,400 unaffiliated voters and around 114,000
not affiliated with the Democratic or Republican party. Based on the 13% voter
turnout for Prince George’s last special primary election in August to replace a
vacant at-large county council seat, unaffiliated voters could have made a difference.
Eberly said that in lopsided states like Maryland, where Democrats enjoy a 2-to-1
voter registration over Republicans, it would benefit the minority party to have an
open primary.
“Democrats still claim over half of the registered voters, but Republicans have about
a quarter of the registered voters, and if they limit their primary to only registered
Republicans, they’re really shutting out a key demographic that’s unaffiliated, that
they need in order to win,” Eberly said. “No Republican can win in Maryland without
winning a lot of unaffiliated voters and some Democrats.”
It is possible for unaffiliated voters to take part in a primary in Maryland, DeMarinis
said, but it involves a party’s State Central Committee to approve, and notify the
state Board of Elections six months before the primary date.
Maryland is one of nine states in the U.S. with a partially closed primary system,
according to the National Association of State Legislatures. Delaware and
Pennsylvania are among 10 states with fully closed primaries. Twenty-five other
states, including neighboring Virginia, have primary voting systems that allow
unaffiliated voters to participate.
Kyle Kondik, a national political analyst with the University of Virginia Center for
Politics, said adding unaffiliated voters to primaries in counties like Prince George’s,
where 75% of voters are registered Democrats, would give almost the entire county
a say in the primary election, which is basically the county’s general election.
Though all voters can participate in the general election, in counties as blue as
Prince George’s County, “the Democratic primary is the more important contest,”
Kondik said. Given the voter registration patterns in the county, if unaffiliated voters
could participate in the special primary, the vast majority of Prince George’s County
voters could cast ballots, he said.
The Baltimore Sun reached out to officials from the Democratic and Republican
state parties, but neither provided a comment for this story.
Jurisdictions throughout Maryland have different systems for filling vacancies,
including a second option in Prince George’s. Angela Alsobrooks, who is heading to
the Senate in January, resigned on Dec. 2. If she had waited until after she served in
the position two years of the four year term, the county council would have
appointed a replacement.
Currently, in Baltimore County, the Council is in the process of voting for a
replacement for county executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr., who is leaving to represent
Maryland’s 2nd Congressional District. And in Anne Arundel County, where a state
lawmaker is also readying for Washington, her replacement will be chosen by the
local Democratic Party.
DeMarinis said he wants everyone to vote as much as possible, but he has to follow
state law.
“We implement what the law is currently, allowing political parties the option,”
DeMarinis said. “They are the political entities that will notify us whether or not they
want to include unaffiliated voters in the primary election.”
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