This article is based on original reporting by a Delmarva Public Media journalist. Artificial intelligence was used to assist with production, and the content was reviewed by our editorial team before publication.
Maryland’s June 23 primary elections produced a troubling signal for anyone concerned about civic life: fewer than one in four eligible voters cast ballots, despite several contested races at the local and state levels.
On the Eastern Shore, the low turnout has renewed an old argument with fresh urgency—whether the state’s closed primary system is keeping too many voters on the sidelines.
Maryland is among the states where voters generally must be registered with a party to vote in that party’s primary. That means more than a million unaffiliated voters, a bloc nearly as large as the state’s Republican registration, play no role in deciding Democratic or Republican nominees.
For Len Foxwell, a Democratic political consultant in Easton, the turnout numbers reflect a deeper rejection of the two-party system. “The people of Maryland are not buying what the two parties are selling,” Foxwell said.
Shari Wilcoxon, chair of the Talbot County Republican Central Committee, sees the frustration too, though she frames it differently. “I really think what’s keeping people at home is they are frustrated with the outcome and they feel like it doesn’t really matter if they vote or not,” she said.
The two agree that voters are disillusioned. They part ways on what to do about it.
Supporters of open primaries argue that closed systems reward candidates who appeal most strongly to party activists, especially in districts where one party dominates and the primary often decides the outcome. Foxwell described that dynamic as a “doom loop,” saying voters in the political middle are alienated by what he called “the growing extremism of both parties.
“They are opting out of these two parties, which means that the folks that are left within the two parties have even greater disproportionate influence in determining our nominees to go into the general election,” Foxwell said. “And that in turn inspires even more disillusionment, even more disengagement.”
The issue is especially resonant on the Eastern Shore as Maryland lawmakers prepare for a special session on congressional redistricting. Critics of gerrymandering say safely drawn districts already give the dominant party’s primary voters outsized power. In heavily Democratic parts of Maryland, many Democratic primaries are effectively decisive; in the largely Republican First Congressional District, the Republican nominee is strongly favored in November.
Gov. Wes Moore has acknowledged the national implications of the debate. Speaking recently to WBAL Radio, Moore said, “I do think that it is important that democracy, in order for democracy to work, it means that people’s voices have to be heard.” He added that many independents do not have a voice until November, after nominees have already been chosen by a smaller slice of the electorate.
Still, Moore’s office has said he supports Maryland’s current closed primary system, illustrating the political difficulty of changing rules that benefit the parties now in power.
Opponents of open primaries say the parties should be able to choose their own nominees without interference from voters who have declined to affiliate. Wilcoxon said unaffiliated voters understand the consequences when they make that choice. “If you want to vote in the primary and have a say, then join a party,” she said.
She also warned that open primaries could invite strategic voting, with voters from one ideological camp crossing into another party’s primary to nominate a weaker candidate. “Why give them a whole ‘nother way to potentially cause havoc?” she asked.
James Winn, a Republican member of the Wicomico County Council, raised a related concern: open primaries could dilute party identity and even leave some voters without a meaningful general-election choice. “The party gets a chance to vote for their elected representative,” Winn said. His advice to dissatisfied voters is to join the party closest to their views and work to change it from within.
Democrats are divided as well. Desmond Stuart, vice chair of the Wicomico County Democratic Central Committee, said there are “proponents and opponents” of open primaries within his party. But Stuart leans toward broader participation.
“If we are in politics and we’re calling ourselves a democracy, I think we should do everything we can to make sure everyone is able to vote in every election,” Stuart said. He said the growing number of unaffiliated voters shows that many people “are feeling left out by the two major parties.”
That argument is echoed by advocates who say unaffiliated voters help fund primaries through their taxes but are barred from participating.
Wilcoxon rejects the taxation argument, saying participation remains a matter of personal choice. “They made a choice,” she said of unaffiliated voters.
Joe White, a Republican candidate for Wicomico County Council and host of a public affairs program on PAC-14 in Salisbury, said the problem may be less about formal exclusion than public disengagement. “I’m very worried that we don’t have more voter participation,” White said. “I don’t think that they’re excluded from participating. I think they’re choosing not to because they don’t feel that the candidates are engaging.”
White praised nonpartisan municipal elections, such as those in Salisbury, but said any statewide shift would require both major parties to move together. “We all have to row in the same direction,” he said.
For Foxwell, the case for opening primaries comes down to forcing candidates to pay attention beyond their bases. Unaffiliated voters, he said, may lean toward Democrats in one election and Republicans in another. Letting them choose a primary would require candidates “to be more mindful, to be more considerate of opinions in the middle.”
Whether Maryland changes course remains uncertain. What is clear is that any decision will likely be made by elected officials who rose through the very closed-primary system now under scrutiny.
