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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