voter registration

[cellio]

PSA: tomorrow is the deadline for registering to vote in the PA primary.

I'm curious about the numbers of new and party-change registrations. Apparently there have been 111,000 new Democratic registrations since the fall election and the number of registered Republicans has gone down by 13,000 in the same time period. But, of the remaining 98,000, how many are brand-new registrations and how many are changes from third-party or independent voters? I'm curious.

According to this article linked by byronhaverford, they're a few thousand shy of 4 million Dem registrations. That says to me that, while 111,000 new (nominal or actual) Democrats is impressive, it's not nearly the number of cross-registrations I would have expected. Of course, this number will change in the next few days, but even so, I guess I was expecting a lot more non-Dems to temporarily switch, like I did.

So for those of you who kept your Republican registrations, I have a thought. Your primary is sealed up already, but instead of staying home or wasting votes on McCain (who doesn't need them), how about casting votes for whichever Republican candidate you feel best represents what the GOP should be and was before the far-righteous got into power? You're not voting for a person (that's already over with), but you could vote for an idea or a direction. Were I registered Republican I would be voting for Ron Paul because he's the only Republican who's against the Iraq war and he seems to actually be for smaller government. (That latter used to be definitive for Republicans, but it hasn't been true for a while.) Could he win? Of course not. If he did, could he implement his agenda? Not very much. But if he showed up with a primary win, that just might get people to start talking about those ideas.

Or not. Up to you. I'm just suggesting that you make your votes count in this late state.

Comments

[happyingreen.livejournal.com]

How does one register for the PA primary? I hope it doesn't involve traveling long distances; I'm carless.

[cellio]

(Assuming you're a US citizen:) go here, print the form, fill it out, and make sure it's post-marked tomorrow (which might require going to a post office).

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

The trickier ways to vote always seem the best to me, but (and here I'm talking against my prior arguments) may appear meaningless to the pundits who control the media who control the average person. They can always interpret a vote for Ron Paul as "oh, must have been an absentee ballot".

[cellio]

The trick is to get enough people to vote for the can't-win candidate that the pundits are forced to ask what might be going on here.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

before the far-righteous got into power

I think you meant the far-from-righteous.

(Edited for typo.)

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Oh, you have hit one of my buttons here: I look at politics here in the UK, and blame many of our current ills on the idea that if you aren't in power, you have no influence. So all the parties compete for the same ideological ground, namely, what they think the electorate wants. I do believe that you can also influence the argument by maintaining a minority viewpoint, just by keeping those arguments in play.

So, yes, what she said.

[cellio]

You have to say it with the right tone of voice. They say they're righteous and that's all that matters, right?

(Love the icon!)

[byronhaverford.livejournal.com]

1) Oh, I'll totally be voting for Rudy! I've even seen him speak in person. I wanted to vote for him since the primary started, and his platform is still closest to mine. I truly believe that everyone should vote for the person they most want to be represented by, ignoring what other voters have done so far. (I'll admit that I might be swayed from that if it were, say, a close race between McCain and Huckabee.) That said, does a candidate's name stay on the ballot once he drops out?

2) Of /course/ you want to vote for Ron Paul. He's a libertarian wearing a Cloak of the Republican (+4 media attention; +10 legitimacy).