Town and Country Newspaper

News Article

Another Choice Lost at the Polls

2014-10-30

The general election is on Tuesday, Nov. 4 and many voters will, once again, fail to show up at the polls. For non-presidential elections, it seems that we

are a stuck in the "less than 29 percent turnout doldrums." The numbers aren't much better for presidential elections.

Voter turnout numbers continue to dwindle while voter registration rises (ever so slightly). It is a conundrum that professional observers continue to scratch their heads over.

Pennsylvania has 1.13 million registered voters who do not identify as Democrats or Republicans. That represents about 13 percent of all registered

voters.

In the five counties of southeastern Pennsylvania (Bucks, Chester, Delaware,

Montgomery and Philadelphia) registered voters who do not identify as

Democrats or Republicans jumped from about 346,000 to more than 371,000

over the last four years. According to voter records, during that time Democrats

lost 38,699 voters and Republicans 57,627.

Pennsylvania has a closed primary election where voters can only cast ballots

within their party registration. The increasing number of independents can be puzzling for party officials since the closed primary tends to reward voters

who affiliate with a party by "closing" the choices for independents.

In New Jersey 47 percent of the voters are registered as independents; New

York has 26.6 percent, and Delaware 24.4 percent. All three of them have closed

primaries as well, but that hasn't stopped registered voters from bailing out on the major political parties.

Maybe those independents are sending a message that they're tired of having

to vote for candidates they don't approve of. In other words they want the

opportunity to vote for a candidate instead of being forced to vote against the

other; which, in their minds, may be the lesser of two evils.

This is the general election and it doesn't matter if you're Democrat, Republican or independent; your vote counts. If you truly don't like the choices you can always select the option to "choose not to vote." That is, unless you vote in

Montgomery County where officials have removed that option from the ballot.

It seems that 1,500 voters in the 2014 primary selected the "Choose not to

vote" button. Montgomery County election officials reported that they received many complaints and ruled that the button was misleading and confusing in its location. Of course, we'll let the government think for you and assume that the voter pushed the wrong button and was disenfranchised when they cast their vote.

Of course with the option gone in Montgomery County and only the "write-in no-vote" available for the disgruntled, the number of voters who chose not to vote will go down and prove that this pilot program is a great success. Yeah, right.

You can't even show up at the polls in Montgomery County and voice your

displeasure anymore. Government has made that option harder and now you

are disenfranchised.

In May, this newspaper championed the right of voters to choose not to

vote as a way to express displeasure with the candidates presented.

It makes sense that, in Montgomery County where numbers continue to show Democrats and Republicans losing registered voters to the ranks of the independents, there would be a growing number of voters showing their dissatisfaction and officials should launch an effort to correct the problem, not hide it.

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