Free & Equal Elections

An Open Letter to our State Senators and Representatives

Starting in January, and throughout the upcoming election cycle, the Independent Gazette will be conducting an in-depth analysis
of your fulfillment of your oath to protect the Pennsylvania Constitution and Free and Equal Elections.

Article I, Section 5, of the Pennsylvania Constitution clearly states the following:
Elections shall be free and equal; and no power, civil or military, shall
at any time interfere to prevent the free exercise of the right of suffrage.

– The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
All Pennsylvania legislators swear an oath to protect and defend the Pennsylvania Constitution and yet, year after year, decade after decade, elected officials from both the Democratic and Republican parties refuse to honor their oaths by disenfranchising over one million independent and third-party Pennsylvania voters from voting in primary elections.
It is very clear: the Pennsylvania Constitution states “elections,” not some elections (at the discretion of two political parties). “Elections” means all elections.

If primaries are to be funded with taxpayer dollars (as they have been for well over a century), then primaries must be open to all registered voters, not solely Democrats and Republicans. In other words, No taxation without representation.

If the Democratic and Republican parties deem it in their interest to hold closed primaries (functioning as private organizations, with participation limited to party members), that is their prerogative. In that case, however, they ought to fund those elections with party money and not taxpayer monies (just as a so-called third party, like the Libertarian Party of Pennsylvania, selects their candidates for each general election).

The Gazette plans to inform our readers, and Pennsylvania voters, in general, how each and every Pennsylvania legislator stands on this issue, whether they consider themselves a constitutionalist or a party loyalist.
The Independent Gazette’s question to all of our state legislators is simple and straightforward, will you sponsor or cosponsor a bill that affirms our state constitution by ensuring that all elections be “Free and Equal.” Yes or No.

We will post your reply in full, unedited on our website, independentgazette.org, and will also update our readers here in Northeastern Pennsylvania (as well as throughout the rest of our great state) in our printed edition every ten days, beginning February 10, 2024.

​Thank you for your cooperation,
Independent Gazette