October 17 – The final day to register to vote in Pennsylvania in the November election is October 23, so if you aren’t registered, get your name in before then because elections matter.
Your voice matters.
Another aspect of elections that could change is the date of the Pennsylvania Primary.
Initially, most people thought that idea wouldn’t go anywhere, but now there could be some momentum.
Michele Jansen of NewsTalk 103.7FM pointed out, “To me it feels like it’s not going to happen because Republicans, I think rightfully, are attaching voter ID to it, because I’m sorry, that’s something very important to the Republicans and as Democrats keep attaching everything they want to bills, I know the Senate Republicans have that in their version of the bill. I’m doubtful you’d get a House with a one vote majority of Democrats to agree to that, but that that would be a big deal for the county, would it not?”
Franklin County Commissioner John Flannery said, “It would be a huge, huge deal for the county. I don’t think people realize how much goes into elections and what it takes to run a fair and honest election, even on the county level. There’s a lot of security. People change roles in the county. We have a staff that just flips a switch, man, when it’s election time, it’s crazy. I think at this point, there’s going to be a lot of pushback to (change the date of the primary). I don’t think it’s right. I don’t think it’s fair.”
Jansen added, “Of course, the reason they want to do it is there’s that idea that Pennsylvania would be a bigger player in the primary if the primary was moved up, but you have to think of these practical impacts. They keep sort of toying around with this and just not getting it to the finish line. My feeling is it’s not going to happen, but that uncertainty remains.”
Flannery predicted, “I don’t think it is going to happen.”
Flannery is also the vice chairman of the Franklin County Republican Committee.
He noted, “We made a strong effort and initiative here in the last month or so to reach out to Republicans in Franklin County that don’t vote other than generally every four years in a presidential election. We sent out thousands of mailers to kind of get on board. It’s one of those things where if you can’t beat them, join them. So the Democrats have been great with mail in balloting. So I’m really excited this election to see if we’ve been able to make an impact with mail in ballots and getting those Republicans that tend not to vote in these off year elections, to cast those votes and get them in, whether by mail or in person. So we’re going to see how that plays out.”
Jansen said, “Isn’t it interesting that that whole executive order to get people to register to vote when they apply for their driver’s license, they say the numbers have been tremendous for Republicans ironically, as that’s gone forward, since that executive order went through.”
Flannery said, “That might possibly be because of the current status of affairs in the country and state. That tends to bring out the opposition a little bit.”
Jansen added, “Independents are out stripping Democrat registration as well. So it’s kind of interesting.”
Pat Ryan of NewsTalk 103.7FM said, “I don’t think you have any more examples of oh, I guess elections do have consequences, given the current status of the Oatmeal in Chief.”
Flannery said, “It’s amazing.”
Ryan continued, “It’s amazing how you can trash a country in a matter of years. You put Iran and you put what happened in Israel and you think about the southern border. Boy, if you don’t think that there are monsters certainly coming across that border, you’ve got another thing coming to you.”
Flannery asked, “What more motivation do you need? I mean, get off the couch and get out there and be a part of the process.”
If you need to register to vote, click here: https://www.pavoterservices.pa.gov/pages/VoterRegistrationApplication.aspx
