Luzerne County’s greatest voter registration growth isn’t Democrat or Republican

Luzerne County’s greatest voter registration growth is from those not Democrats or Republicans, statistics show.

Since last year’s May primary election, the county added 1,876 voters of no affiliation or with affiliations other than the two major political parties, according to the latest state report dated March 2.

In comparison, the county lost 189 Democratic voters and picked up an additional 680 Republican voters during this time period, analysis of the report shows.

The number of voters registered to other or no affiliations has also surpassed 30,000 in the county, amounting to 15% of the total voting base.

At the time of last year’s primary, the county had 203,441 registered voters: 84,227 Democrats, 90,456 Republicans, and 28,758 with no or other affiliations.

The county has 205,808 voters — 84,038 Democrats, 91,136 Republicans and 30,634 with no or other affiliation.

Two veteran local political science observers — Thomas Baldino and David Sosar — say they are not surprised most of the increase stems from voters not registered to either major party.

“It’s clearly a dissatisfaction with both major parties,” said Baldino, a retired Wilkes University political science professor and a co-author of “Pennsylvania Government and Politics — Understanding Public Policy in the Keystone State.”

Baldino said the rise of no and other affiliations is a statewide trend.

Approximately 16.5% of voters statewide, or 1.47 million, now have no or other affiliations — a count that increased 57,580 since May 2025, the new report said.

The other statewide totals, with the growth since May in parentheses: Democrats, 3.8 million (up 9,980), and Republicans, 3.6 million (up 12,280).

Sosar, an emeritus political science professor at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, said the no/other-affiliation influx is “the wave right now” in many states.

He believes finger-pointing and impasses between the two major parties are driving more voters to reject the major parties.

“So many people got turned off by major political parties,” Sosar said, noting this is “especially true among many younger voters registering to vote.”

Primary elections

Pennsylvania has closed primaries, which means only Republican and Democratic voters get to nominate which candidates advance to the general elections.

Baldino pointed out a group of unaffiliated voters filed litigation in Commonwealth Court at the end of 2025 challenging the state’s closed primary system.

The suit plaintiffs include political commentator Michael Smerconish and David Thornburgh, chair of the Ballot PA Action advocacy campaign and prior head of the Committee of Seventy, an independent, Philadelphia-based civic group focused on government reform.

This legal action argues no voter should be barred from participating in taxpayer-funded primary elections.

Primaries are often the “decisive election in heavily gerrymandered districts,” said the nonprofit Open Primaries Education Fund, which has posted information about the pending litigation at openprimarieseducationfund.org.

Sosar said he expects increasing political activism pushing for open primaries in Pennsylvania.