HARRISBURG - Proposals to let independent voters cast ballots in party nomination primaries passed a Pennsylvania House of Representatives Committee Tuesday, raising the prospect that changes could pass and take effect in time for next year’s presidential contest.

Two bills passed with support only from Democrats and were advanced toward a full House vote.

The measures would allow independent voters to choose which political party primary they want to vote in. One of the two bills would also allow third party voters to vote in major party primaries if their party did not receive enough votes to be considered an official party.

Electors would be able to vote for the party nomination for public office candidates but not to elect candidates for party offices.

A majority of states have some form of an open primary, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. There are seven states with laws on the books similar to the two Pennsylvania bills, allowing unaffiliated voters to cast primary ballots.

More than 1 million Pennsylvanians are not affiliated with either party, making them the fastest-growing demographic within the state’s electorate, sponsors for the bills said. A large number of veterans and young voters are unaffiliated, sponsors said.

“For whatever reason that our primary elections suffer from so low turnout, there’s obviously something wrong with the status quo in Pennsylvania,” said Rep. Jared Solomon, D-Philadelphia, a sponsor of one of the bills. “We have an opportunity to fix that, to overcome one of those barriers to increase voters in our primary and general election system.”

David Thornburgh, who chairs Ballot PA, a nonpartisan effort that supports ending the state’s closed primary system, called the vote historic.

“It’s time to let these voters have a say in who represents them and how their government is run,” he said in a statement.