Thank the Trumps

The unthinkable has happened: The Trump campaign has done people of New York a public service. Two of Donald Trump’s children, Ivanka and Eric, confessed last week that they had failed to switch their enrollment to the Republican Party in time to vote for their father in Tuesday’s presidential primary.

The arrogantly Trumpian obliviousness to the rules is a huge embarrassment to a daughter and son who knew full well their dad was running for the GOP nomination back when last October’s party-enrollment deadline came and went.

But beyond Trumpistan are thousands of registered voters inspired to take part in an all-important primary who are getting shut out by some of the nation’s most restrictive rules.

State law says to vote in a primary, an enrolled voter must formally join the party by an absurdly early date a year and a month before the general election. This cycle, it was Oct. 9, 2015.

The snag caught Erica Snipes, daughter of Eric Garner, a committed Bernie Sanders supporter who didn’t become a Democrat in time to vote.

Having some deadline makes sense. Parties are right to want to prevent enrollees from flooding their ranks at the last minute to make mischief.

But it’s obscenely protective of partisan privilege to pull up the drawbridge a full half-year before people go to the primary polls.