State should change date of primary
Amidst a time of tremendous, positive change in Pennsylvania elections, more may be in the works.
For a long time Pennsylvanians have made their primary selections at a point in the process when the contests usually are all but decided. The situation has only gotten worse as other states move up their primaries, making it even less likely that races will be in doubt by late April.
State Sen. John R. Gordner, a Columbia County Republican, has introduced a bill that would move up Pennsylvania’s presidential primary election and give our state a stronger political voice.
The legislation, which would take effect in time for the 2024 election, has passed the Senate State Government Committee unanimously and is moving forward for consideration by the full Senate.
The legislation calls for holding the primary two weeks after Super Tuesday. Had this legislation passed in time for the 2020 election, Pennsylvania’s primary would have taken place March 17 instead of April 28 as it is scheduled now. We’d be sharing the date with Arizona, Florida, Illinois, and Ohio.
We agree with the idea and are encouraged by the bipartisan support Gordner’s measure has received thus far.
For a long time Pennsylvanians have made their primary selections at a point in the process when the contests usually are all but decided. The situation has only gotten worse as other states move up their primaries, making it even less likely that races will be in doubt by late April.
We wish that this weren’t necessary. What would be preferable is a wholesale rethinking of the peculiar way Americans go about choosing their presidential nominees. But with 50 states and two political parties dictating the process according to their own interests, it’s impossible to come up with a coherent system.
That’s unfortunate. Through some combination of accident and tradition, we’re left with a system that encourages candidates to spend months pandering to voters in a handful of states such as Iowa and New Hampshire. The best that can be said about it is that it forces candidates to engage with voters up close in these early contests. But it also leads to policy choices such as ethanol subsidies that don’t necessarily serve the interests of the entire country.
When the early contests are over, it quickly turns into a quasinational election, with weekly contests involving numerous states.
And that’s not even to mention the quirky variations in election processes, including caucuses and party conventions that only political insiders really understand. Of course it all leads up to the parties’ national conventions, once occasions of high drama but now merely supersized commercials for the preordained nominees.
Pennsylvania’s lawmakers can’t fix all that. What they can do is enact legislation such as Gordner’s
proposal to make the best of the bad situation.
If the measure passes, it would be the latest in a series of promising electoral reforms enacted in Harrisburg.
Major changes are coming to polling places in 2020. One of the biggest is the elimination of straight-ticket voting. The ability to vote for a party’s entire slate of candidates with the push of a button remained in effect for the Nov. 5 election and had an impact on the results.
Much of the talk on the subject has focused on Republicans in suburban Philadelphia who blame their declining electoral fortunes at least in part on straight-ticket voting by Democrats. But in Berks County, Democrats are the unhappy ones. They believe straight-ticket voting hurt their performance in countywide races. The fact that new voting machines made it the simplest possible option likely didn’t help. More than half of the voters in Berks took the straight-ticket option this year.
Come next year this will no longer be an issue, and that’s good. Voters should have to take at least a moment or two to weigh the merits of each candidate in each race. Party affiliation shouldn’t be the sole attribute under consideration.
We’re also pleased with coming changes that allow any voter to cast a ballot by mail up to 50 days before an election and give voters more time register.
We urge legislators not to stop now on these kinds of reforms. Rescheduling the primary is a good idea.
An even better idea is redistricting reform. Proposals are on the table for that, too.
It’s time to finally get moving.