The Way Forward for Multiparty Democracy in Maryland
- Maryland Forward
- 8 hours ago
- 1 min read
By Andy Ellis
“In 2024, after a panel discussion, I was talking with State Senator Charles Sydnor and I kept saying "two-party system." He stopped me. We don't have a two-party system, he said. You're on the ballot. You have a party. You're advocating to change things. Stop acting like you don't exist.
He was right. Maryland doesn't have a two-party system. Maryland law explicitly creates two classes of political parties: principal parties (the Democrats and Republicans) and non-principal parties (Greens, Libertarians, the Working Class Party). As members of non-principal parties we collect signatures, qualify for ballot lines, and run candidates. The question isn't how to break a two-party system. It's how to make the multiparty system we already have actually work. That means elected officials who have to earn votes from every community instead of assuming them, and a supermajority that has to negotiate instead of governing unchecked.
The demand is there. According to Gallup, forty-five percent of Americans now identify as independents, a record high. Sixty-two percent say a third party is needed. According to the State Board of Elections, nearly one million Maryland voters are registered as unaffiliated. People are leaving the two parties because they want more choices and different outcomes.”
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