Pa.’s list of wacky political party names signals strong third-party impulse

• By Michael Long / LNP | LancasterOnline

As journalists, we spend a lot of time with our noses buried in data, much of it mind-numbing and dense, but on rare occasions we unearth a list or table that is laugh-out-loud funny.

In the spirit of holiday cheer, your faithful Watchdog would like to share one such delightful data set: Pennsylvania’s list of Political Party Codes and Descriptions, which lives in the state’s Open Data Portal.

Pennsylvania officially recognizes four political parties: Democratic, Republican, Green and Libertarian, and on Question 8 of the state’s voter registration application, new voters can check a box to identify themselves as a member of any one of those four parties.

Voters who want to go their own way can check a box for “No Affiliation,” or they can check a box marked “Other” and write in whatever they like — and write in, they do.

A decade ago, the list of traditional parties plus write-ins stood just shy of 90 unique designations; by July 2020, that list had ballooned to more than 500 and included the Birthday Party, the Pizza Party and the Pirate Starship Party.

At that point, according to the Department of State, the list became too cumbersome and, for purposes of practical state record keeping, the agency declared that the four major parties and “Other” sufficed.

Still, the list lives, and The Watchdog cross-referenced it with Lancaster County’s voter registration records and found county voters identify with 103 of the 518 party designations on that sometimes disturbing, but frequently hilarious list.

Beyond the Green Party, the list’s more colorful groups include the Orange, Pumpkin, Purple, White Lotus, Blue Army and Rainbow parties.

History buffs will appreciate the Prohibition and Whig parties, each of which enjoy one county member, and three stubborn voters here remain registered with the PA for Perot Party.

The county claims one Anarchist, one Fascist and five Communists, but graciously no members of the Marxist, Nazi, White Nationalist or Vigilante parties.

The true party animals among Pennsylvania voters coined a barrel of fun names: The Beer/Sex/Rock and Roll Party, along with the Chablais, Marijuana, Toga, Keg, Depends and Key parties, the last two of which boast members from Lancaster County.

 

Religion makes noteworthy appearances with the Kingdom of God, Jesus, Allah and Pastafarian parties, and the entertainment industry gets plugs for the Disney, Lannister (for you “Game of Thrones” fans) and Oprah parties.

Both sides of The Force are represented — the Galactic Empire and Jedi parties, the latter of which has four county adherents.

Four other voters here are registered with another “Star Wars”-related group, the Adarian Party, but there’s a good chance they are not aware they are members. In 2015, the Philadelphia Daily News reported that more than 250 people in the state who registered through PennDOT were unwittingly placed in the Adarian Party due to what was likely an alphabetizing error, as the Adarian Party appeared at the top of the state’s list of party designations at the time.

An Adarian, for those who don’t speak “Star Wars,” is a member of a noseless, earless humanoid race with elongated heads. Their political proclivities are anyone’s guess.

The list of Pennsylvania political party designations is loaded with dozens more hidden gems, and it’s worth combing through. The Watchdog was relieved the Donner Party went unclaimed, but disappointed no one registered the After Party.

 

Independent streak

All joking aside, the third-party impulse is strong in Lancaster County and across the state.

In 2023, the Department of State began including new-voter party registration data in its annual reports, which show independent and third-party voters make up a significant bloc of new voters.

Statewide in 2024, county election offices processed more than 150,000 new voter registrations, of which 47,434 registered as Democrats, 52,923 as Republicans and 53,760 as unaffiliated or third-party. More new voters are choosing independence even in the face of Pennsylvania’s closed primaries.

In Lancaster County so far this year, 2,653 registered voters switched their party registration to Democratic, 2,719 to Republican and 3,258 to something other than the two major parties. Today, nearly 1 in 5 county voters is neither Democratic nor Republican.

Independents helped to deliver big wins for county Democrats in 2025, especially in suburbs where the GOP now holds less than 50% of voter registrations, but their role is mostly limited to that of ballot-box spoiler. As candidates, independents seldom gain traction in local elections, even those who have catchy, clever third-party names.

Just ask Tony Dastra, who for a few years ran in Lancaster city races under his own Gold Goose Party flag, only to finally cast his lot in with the Green Party earlier this year.

The Gold Goose Party never made it past the “political body” stage, which technically is what most of those party designations on the state list are.

For a political body to be officially recognized as a party at the county level, a candidate put forward would need to capture enough votes in an election to equal 5% of the largest entire vote cast for a single candidate in the county.

“These processes seem overly cumbersome for someone trying to start political action,” Dastra recently told the Watchdog. “I hope there’s reform on the state level to make this a smoother process for anybody hoping to do something that’s not in the box of an existing political party.”

In Lancaster County, only the two major parties, Democratic and Republican, meet the party certification threshold, and even with the ranks of independents steadily growing, they don’t pose a serious threat to deeply entrenched partisans.

Santa Claus himself would have trouble getting elected here as an independent.

But the Watchdog would love to see him try. While the Halloween Party is taken (and has one member in the county) the Christmas Party is still up for grabs in Pennsylvania.

Here’s hoping our elected officials, regardless of party, choose peace on Earth and goodwill toward men as their platform in 2026.