Editor:
In your Oct. 8 editorial (“State must act quickly on primaries”) you call for establishing an earlier date for Pennsylvania’s primary election, claiming it would give people here more choice and power in the selection of candidates for the November election.
You then go on to call for allowing independent and third-party voters to take part in primaries so that all Pennsylvanians can have a voice in the candidate selection process. That is not the purpose of a primary election. The purpose of a primary election is so that party members can choose their party’s candidates. Those candidates will then represent the party’s position on items of interest to the general public in an attempt to hopefully win the election.
What is being proposed in Pennsylvania would enable someone who is not a party member to select a political party’s candidate and thereby change or nullify the views expressed by registered members of a party. If a person desires to do this, let them join that party. It’s easy, all they need to do is register as a member. If they won’t take the time to register and join a party, then they should not have the power to try to change that party.
Right now a nonparty member can only vote on nonparty issues in a primary. It should stay that way.
Chris Dailey
Lower Heidelberg Township
Source: Berkshire mont