Penna Voter Registration Deadline is 5pm TODAY!

This Can Be Done in New Jersey... (0.00 / 0)

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes...

Updated | 6:35 p.m. PHILADELPHIA - Democratic voter registration in Pennsylvania has hit a record of more than 4 million voters.

"It's kind of incredible," Harry A. VanSickle, the state's elections commissioner, tells The Caucus as his office prepares to post the new numbers. "It's the first time we know of that a party in Pennsylvania has gone over 4 million."

A total of 4,044,952 people are now registered to vote in the Democratic primary; a total of 3,215,478 are registered for the Republican primary.

The deadline for registering for the April 22 primary is today, and volunteers for both Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton are still out on the streets here trolling for last-minute registrants. The final official numbers will be tallied later.

Mr. VanSickle said he has told elections officials in the state's 67 counties to prepare for a massive turnout on primary day. "We've told them, whatever you're expecting, increase it by 30 or 40 percent," he said.

Massive voter registration (and activation) targeted toward demographics likely to support progressives could turn this state around.

 

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by: Nick Lento @ Tue Mar 25, 2008 at 04:00:12 AM UTC

They're finally doing more with motor voter here. n/t (0.00 / 0)

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by: Creed Pogue @ Tue Mar 25, 2008 at 16:43:41 PM UTC

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that's too bad about the postmark deadline (0.00 / 0)

since the Obama campaign info that I got (and advised voters on) was that Mar 24th was the postmark deadline.  I hope they'll honor those postmarks.

I know it's heresy in some quarters, but we should just go to open primaries. On super Tuesday doing election protection work, I met at least 2 first time voters that hadn't figured out that they needed to register and several others who had moved and not re-registered.  They were all disappointed that they couldn't vote.  

I know the clerks object, but the sky didn't fall in Texas or the other open primary states (though the Texas caucus looked a bit chaotic)...

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by: kwilkinson @ Wed Mar 26, 2008 at 05:04:28 AM UTC

Hopefully they will honor them... (0.00 / 0)

... but I'm a lawyer, and when I see "received" I err on the side of caution.

I think you may be talking about two different things: "open" primaries where non-party-members are permited to vote, and election-day registration.

My view on primaries is that they should be open to those who want to join the party.  That is a slightly more expansive approach than New Jersey, which allowed unaffiliated voters to affiliate at the polls on election day, but didn't allow people registered with another party to change affiliation on election day.  I think if we're letting unaffiliateds affiliate we ought also to let Republicans do the same.  The risk of mischief is negligible, since the individual couldn't vote twice at the same precinct without being detected and few would want to go through the rigamarole of later re-registering as R's just to cast a "chaos" vote.  But a fully open primary, where dedicated Republicans can cross over and cast a vote in our primary (or vice-versa), creates an unnecessary opportunity for mischief a la Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos."

Election Day registration is something I haven't thought enough about.  It looks rife with opportunities for misuse.  Perhaps it could be permitted, with those voters using provisional ballots to allow time for the SVRS to detect multiple-registrants.  I'm not sure, and I could be convinced either way.  What does anbody else out there think?

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by: John Bartlett @ Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 13:28:10 PM UTC

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