Trending
It is harder to get people to vote than it should be.
It's hard to get them to register in the first place, even when "motor voter" registration while getting a driver's license makes it as easy as tipping at a fast food joint.
It's hard to get them to show up at the polls if they aren't invested in the race. That's why high-profile presidential and midterm years have more turnout than an off-year municipal election.
And it's hard to get them to care in years when the choices don't excite them.
It's particularly difficult with unaffiliated or third-party voters. Democrats and Republicans can be pushed by their parties. They can also become more invested in the November voting if the candidates they picked in the primary are on the ballot.
That doesn't happen with an independent voter. Barring a ballot question during a primary, unaffiliated or third-party voters don't get an opportunity to vote in May -- or earlier when the primary can get moved around in presidential years. Conversely, how many ballot questions don't see those same voters answering because they weren't at the polls?
The state House of Representatives has advanced a bill to let those voters participate in primaries.
Don't get excited. It's probably not going to move from bill to law. For that to happen, it would have to pass the more rigid Senate, as well -- and it would have to do so before the end of the year. Considering the glacial speed at which bills move through the General Assembly, that's unlikely.
But what is more interesting is the way the House voted.
The lawmakers split 115-88. The House is narrowly divided with a Democratic majority, 103 to 100. That means legislators of both parties looked at this issue, considered it and crossed the aisle. Democrats voted in agreement with Republicans that unaffiliated voters should get to participate. Republicans agreed with other Democrats that they shouldn't.
This is how the process is supposed to work. It shouldn't be lockstep. Every vote should be a thoughtful decision with every representative open to making a choice that might agree with a rival or oppose a friend.
Not everyone wants to see Pennsylvania move from closed primaries to something more open, and that's a valid position. But cracking open the rigid walls of how legislators vote is always a good thing.