Despite most people thinking of American politics as only Republicans and Democrats, the past decade has seen registration for independents grow to the point that registered independents now outnumber both Republicans and Democrats.

A federal judge’s ruling last week making it easier for third-party candidates to get on the ballot in Pennsylvania is in line with these registration trends that suggest voters are disillusioned with Republicans and Democrats — not only their predictable positions, but also the endless partisan bickering.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Stengel’s ruling lowered the number of signatures required for minor-party candidates to get on the ballot in Pennsylvania. This requirement, usually tens of thousands more signatures than Republicans or Democrats needed to collect to get on the ballot, has long been seen as an unfair barrier to third-party candidates. And bipartisan efforts by Republican and Democrats to keep others off the ballot reveals the two major parties to be co-conspirators when it comes to keeping political power to themselves.

The signature requirement for third-party candidates had been set at 2 percent of the votes going to highest vote-getter in the most recent previous general election. In the past few years, this meant more than 21,000 signatures were needed for a third-party candidate to run in a statewide general election in Pennsylvania.

The judge ruled, as part of a four-year-old lawsuit, that third-party candidates would need only 5,000 signatures to get on the ballot. He also struck down the Legislature’s requirement that candidates for public office had to pay the legal costs to their paperwork presented to be included on the ballot if the challenge was successful.

It’s been an abuse of power for Republicans and Democrats to routinely file legal challenges to third-party candidates, then to impose the costs of that process on the candidates if successful. Not only was the signature threshold artificially high for minor-party candidates, but they could be hit with tens of thousands of dollars in legal costs if their ballot access process was found to have been incomplete or in violation of some technicality.

More and more voters are frustrated by the choices offered by Republicans and Democrats. They see the political class as more interested in power and remaining in office than in providing solutions to voters’ concerns.

The rise of both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in the 2016 race is evidence that millions of voters are fed up with politics as usual from mainstream Republicans and Democrats.

Third-party candidates can and should be part of the solution. With registered independents outnumbering Republicans and Democrats, voters are clearly open to third-party candidates.

The judge’s ruling, if not diluted by a legislative response from Harrisburg politicans, should open the way for more choices for voters. Even if third-party candidates do not start winning statewide elections, their improved ballot access should put pressure on Republicans and Democrats to be more responsive to voters’ frustrations.

Voters are hungry for change, and a shake-up of the lock on power enjoyed, and perpetuated, by Republicans and Democrats.