Why not?
Voter turnout has been on the decline for a number of years, and it was abysmal once again in last month’s primary. Fayette County led the way with a meager 27 percent turnout followed by Greene County at 25 percent, Westmoreland County at 19 percent and Washington County at 18 percent.
There are many reasons for the decline, including a dwindling number of candidates and races and general voter apathy. Many people, unfortunately, think their vote doesn’t matter when it clearly does, especially in local elections.
You’d think that politicians would be eager to try anything to get more voters to the polls. Well, Democrats have come up with a number of ideas to make it easier to vote, but so far they’ve been blocked by Republicans in the state Legislature.
State Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, has proposed two measures. One would authorize early voting eight days before an election day and ending the day before the election. Snyder said that 37 states and Washington, D.C., offer some form of early voting.
The other measure would allow voters to obtain absentee ballots without giving a reason, such as medical or job issues. Snyder said 27 states and Washington, D.C., offer no-excuse absentee voting.
“These are red states and blue states,” she said. “While most states open the doors and encourage voting, Pennsylvania remains stuck in the mindset of, ‘You’ll vote when we say you can, and not a day earlier.'”
“We’re busy people, on the go constantly to jobs, family responsibilities, civic duties, and not all of us work 9-to-5 shifts,” Snyder added. “We can do better. We should do better.”
Snyder is one of 12 Democrats pushing for a variety of measures intended to make voting easier. They include allowing voters to cast their ballots by mail, permitting voters to register on the same day they vote and authorizing automatic voter registration when residents interact with state government.
These are commonsense measures, but none of the bills have been able to get past the first stage of consideration by the House and Senate state government committees, which are controlled by Republicans.
Daryl Metcalfe, who chairs the House State Government Committee, didn’t return a request for comment from the State House Sound Bites website. His Senate counterpart, Mike Folmer, told the website that he’s not holding anything up. He said there are bigger election issues to tackle before expanding registration.
“While I think it’s an indefeasible right to vote, I also think it’s a responsibility,” Folmer said. “And with any responsibility, there should be a certain amount of things that you have to do.”
Well, it’s hard to believe there’s anything much bigger than voter apathy and the threat it poses to our democracy. After all, what good is a democracy if no one shows up to vote. Or consider what happens when the handful of people who do vote are able to impose their will on a majority of citizens.
We’ve supported similar voting measures in the past, and we back the efforts of Snyder and her fellow Democrats. They’re to be commended for trying to get more people to the polls.
This isn’t a partisan issue. It’s in the best interests of everyone to make sure that as many people as possible come out and vote. We would urge Republican lawmakers, both here and across the state, to put pressure on Metcalfe and Folmer to bring these bills up for a vote by all the members of the state Legislature. We would urge Republicans and Democrats alike to vote for the measures, and we think they would probably be approved. In the end, it’s just hard to fathom how anyone, especially a lawmaker, could be against making it easier to vote.