Last week a bi-partisan senate bill was rolled out in Harrisburg to repeal Pennsylvania's closed primary elections and allow independent and unaffiliated voters to cast ballots in primaries.

Republican Senator Dan Laughlin is a key sponsor of Senate Bill 400, along with democrat Lisa Boscola from Bethlehem, PA.

The measure aims to open up primary voting to the nearly 1.3 million registered Pennsylvania voters who are not republicans or democrats.

According to the bill, unaffiliated or independent Pennsylvania voters would have to choose to vote for candidates on the democratic ticket or the republican ticket, one or the other.  Registered democrats and republicans would "stay in their own lane."

We asked the chairs of the Erie County democratic and republican parties for their thoughts on the measure.

Democrat Jim Wertz favors the idea. "Because they haven't had a voice in the primary they don't always feel as strongly about our candidates in November. And so we want to create a space for those folks to participate in that process," Wertz said.

Republican Tom Eddy does not. "I don't feel that we should have other people coming in and voting for someone and getting them to represent me that they're not even tied to my philosophy you might say," Eddy said.

Pennsylvania is one of only 9 states across the U.S. with a completely closed primary, meaning that voters can only cast ballots for candidates in their party. 

Chair of Political Science at Mercyhurst University Dr. Joe Morris said the trend across the nation is clearly to open up the process and get more voters involved. "Increasingly states are moving toward primaries where you do not have to be a member of a political party in order to vote in that party's election. And often you can register to vote on the same day of the election. These are things that Pennsylvania just doesn't do."

The measure will likely spark debate in Harrisburg and moving the bill will take time.  Whatever lawmakers decide will not happen in time to impact the May 16, 2023 primary election.