Election
Most normal folks are still nursing an Election ’04 hangover. But politicians aren’t normal folk. They are gearing up for ’08. And Gov. Ed Rendell wants to make sure Pennsylvania is a player. He wants the candidates to come courting long before nominating conventions. In fact, he wants the Keystone state to be, well, the key to naming the presidential candidates.
To that end, Rendell this week created the Governor’s Task Force on Elections. If he truly wants to make changes that are of benefit to Pennsylvania, the Democratic governor will reach across the aisle and ask the Republicans to name some of the members.
The task force will be charged with deciding whether the primary ought to be held sooner than April during presidential election years. Few, other than some incumbent legislators worried about using their long hiatus to circulate nominating petitions for re-election, would argue that this is a bad idea. By the time Pennsylvanians go to the polls, both major parties have already all but christened their nominees.
It’s the other matters placed before the task force that are likely to become steeped in controversy, particularly the idea to split the state’s electoral votes rather than keep the winner-takes-all set-up that awarded John Kerry all of Pennsylvania’s 21 votes, even though the race was tight. And there remains the matter of who should or shouldn’t cast absentee ballots and when they need to received.
Many elections issues become steeped in partisan bickering, so taking three or four years to chew over changes just might be needed to win a consensus.