CNN host Michael Smerconish is a Pennsylvania voter who is denied access to taxpayer-funded primaries because he is a registered non-party affiliate (independent). He is also one of the plaintiffs in a new lawsuit challenging his state’s use of closed primaries. 

“In Pennsylvania, there are currently 1.4 million voters or 16% of the total registered electorate who are not registered as Republican or Democratic,” Smerconish recently noted on his show.

“Fourteen states, including Nebraska and New Hampshire, have [fewer] voters in total.”

He added that his guest on the show, Open Primaries Senior Vice President Jeremy Gruber, also points out that these Pennsylvania independents are among the 30 million independent voters nationwide who are denied access to critical primary elections across the US.

All because they choose not to affiliate with a private political corporation.

The lawsuit in Pennsylvania asserts that the state is violating its own constitution by using closed primaries, specifically its Free and Equal Elections Clause, and creating what they call a “two-tiered electorate.”

“As one of our lawyers, Shannon Spector, said: ‘Denying a citizen the right to vote is the harshest form of taxation without representation,’” Smerconish said.

He hosted a debate on his show between Gruber, who argued for open primary reform, and University of Denver Political Science Professor Seth Masket, who argued that primaries are for the parties, and the general election is where candidates are actually elected.

However, in Pennsylvania, nearly all general elections for state legislature and Congress are safe for one party or the other. Check out the full discussion and debate between Masket and Gruber above.