The presidential primary is always an interesting exercise in Pennsylvania. An exercise in futility, that is.
For a year, the state has watched the Democratic hopefuls strut onto the stage and have their say. A few acknowledged the general electoral importance of Pennsylvania with announcements and appearances. Homegrown former congressman and retired Navy admiral Joe Sestak even threw his hat in the ring.
And yet still there was a simple fact that always makes watching primary antics somewhat like a commercial for “Hamilton.” It’s a show you know you won’t get tickets to see.
Pennsylvania’s primary is normally in May. In presidential years, it moves up in a feeble attempt to make Keystone voters more a part of the action. Those three weeks don’t make much of a difference.
A candidate needs 1,991 pledged delegates to win the nomination. By the time polls open in Pennsylvania on April 28, a total of 2,740 will have been awarded. The only state with more delegates than Pennsylvania’s 186 to vote that day is New York with 274. In the weeks that follow, just one state with more than 100 delegates will hold a primary — New Jersey, with 126.
But as the horde of candidates has crumbled to just two serious contenders over the last month, Pennsylvania is poised to matter for a change. The potential for a brokered convention in Milwaukee if Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders keep up their neck-and-neck battle in primaries and caucuses could mean that nothing will be written in stone come late April.
And that means it’s a good thing Westmoreland County is test-driving its $7.1 million voting system, newly acquired to meet Gov. Tom Wolf’s mandate for equipment with a verifiable paper trial. In the wake of serious missteps with the Iowa caucuses, the state Democratic Party chair resigned.
If Pennsylvania has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play a part in the primary, let’s make the count actually count.
