What percentage of Maryland voters are registered as unaffiliated (no party)?
Executive summary
About one-fifth to roughly one-third of Maryland’s registered voters are unaffiliated depending on the snapshot and date: a 2020 report counted about 766,788 unaffiliated voters (then roughly 12–13% of the electorate in context) while later reporting and polls describe the bloc growing to “nearly 1 million” unaffiliated voters and to about 20% in commentary [1] [2] [3]. Official, up‑to‑date numbers come from the Maryland State Board of Elections’ voter registration statistics pages; analysis and percentages vary across media and advocacy sources [4] [5].
1. Official data exist but must be pulled from the State Board reports
The Maryland State Board of Elections compiles and publishes voter registration activity and party‑affiliation reports; that is the primary source for the exact, current count and percentage of unaffiliated registrants [4]. The Board’s voter registration pages explain that voters who do not choose a party are labeled “unaffiliated” and detail voting rights for those registrants [5].
2. Different sources report different headline percentages
News outlets and analyses have described unaffiliated voters variously: a 2020 local TV story cited 766,788 active unaffiliated voters in that year’s data [1]. Maryland Matters and other commentary noted unaffiliated voters had reached about 20% of the electorate, framing them as the fastest‑growing group [3]. A 2025 poll write‑up characterized the unaffiliated bloc as “nearly 1 million” voters — a figure used to emphasize political significance and parity with registered Republicans [2]. Those differences reflect timing and whether the count is given as a raw number or converted to a percentage against total registered voters [1] [3] [2].
3. Why the numbers move: timing, rounding and different framings
State registration totals change monthly and are reported in PDFs and tables by the Board of Elections, so any external report is a snapshot [4]. Media stories frequently round or compare raw unaffiliated counts to other party totals to make political points; for example, calling unaffiliated voters “about 20%” highlights growth and representation arguments even when alternative snapshots show lower or higher percentages depending on total registration at that moment [3] [1] [2].
4. Political significance drives how sources present the data
Advocates and reporters point to rising unaffiliated numbers to argue for policy changes — such as adding unaffiliated representation to election boards or reconsidering primary access — because the bloc constrains party primaries under Maryland’s mostly closed primary system [3] [5]. Poll writers emphasize the “nearly 1 million” figure to frame unaffiliated voters as a decisive swing group roughly equivalent to the Republican register in size [2]. These framings reflect advocacy and editorial goals as much as raw statistics.
5. What you should do if you need a precise percentage today
Go to the State Board of Elections’ Voter Registration Statistics page and download the most recent Voter Registration Activity report or the county‑level PDFs; those contain current counts by party and let you compute the unaffiliated percentage of total active registered voters [4]. The Board’s consumer guidance pages also explain how Maryland labels and treats unaffiliated registrants [5].
6. Limitations and competing viewpoints in reporting
Available sources show varying snapshots and editorial choices: Maryland Matters and local outlets frame unaffiliated voters as a rising 20% force calling for representation [3], while contemporaneous counts cited in local TV from 2020 gave a raw unaffiliated total [1]. Poll reporting in 2025 stresses a near‑million unaffiliated voters to judge political impact [2]. The State Board’s own pages are the authoritative data source, but newspapers and advocacy outlets highlight different takeaways and use different baselines [4] [5] [3] [1] [2].
If you want, I can fetch the exact count and percentage from the latest State Board Voter Registration Activity report and show the math (not found in current reporting here; I will pull [4]’s current PDF and cite it).