On Monday, five former governors came together to espouse a common cause.

Tom Ridge, Mark Schweiker, Ed Rendell, Tom Corbett and Tom Wolf represent an unbroken chain of the Keystone State’s top executives that extends back to 1995. Three are Republicans. Two are Democrats. Wolf and Corbett were even adversaries in the 2010 election. These are five men who have trouble agreeing on a lunch order.

But they agree on one thing. They think all Pennsylvanians should get a chance to vote. Not just every November. Not just when there’s a statewide ballot question. They think everyone should get to vote every time — even if they haven’t picked a political party. They published a letter on the Ballot PA website supporting the repeal of closed primaries.

“Primary elections are often decided by a few, more extreme voters. Candidates elected by those more extreme voters don’t have as much incentive to engage in the compromise and give and take that is so essential to effective governing. Adding independent voters to the primary mix will help,” they wrote.

Pennsylvania definitely saw that in 2022 with the gubernatorial and U.S. Senate races. A crowded field of would-be Republican governors narrowed quickly as support grew for state Sen. Doug Mastriano, with powerful party members throwing their support behind candidates they thought would fair better in the general election.

It didn’t work. Mastriano lost to Democrat Josh Shapiro by 14.8 percentage points and about 800,000 votes.

These five governors, as well as a number of legislators, think one way to correct our political problems is to give Pennsylvanians the kind of primaries most other states have.

Only Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Nevada, New Mexico and New York have the same kind of closed primary, where independents are locked out of anything but referendums or ballot questions.

It isn’t as easy as open or closed either. There are shades of gray. Nine states including neighboring Maryland and West Virginia have a partially closed system where independents can participate sometimes but not every time. Then there are the six like Ohio and New Jersey that are “partially open” and let voters move between parties.

Legislative support for change is also bipartisan. State Rep. Scott Conklin, D-Centre County, has introduced bills on the topic. State Sen. Dan Laughlin, R-Erie County, and Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Lehigh/Northampton, are cosponsoring a bill. It sits in committee waiting for Sen. Cris Dush, R-Jefferson County, to bring it to a vote; he opposes the idea so that is unlikely to happen.

And that is the problem. Issues need debate and votes to hear what people really think and what they decide, whether in Harrisburg or your local polling place. Just because Dush doesn’t see value in the idea doesn’t mean his colleagues don’t. Just because an independent doesn’t want to pick a side doesn’t mean he shouldn’t get to pick a candidate.

Five out of five former governors agree.

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