As others see it: Move state primary up to June

Talk about it

Minnesota lawmakers should either vote to move the state’s primary election to June or else wait for another election cycle go-round in 2012.

A bill introduced last week, which seems to have bipartisan support, would nix the Sept. 14 primary date for an Aug. 10 election.

The Senate sponsor of the bill, Sen. Terri Bonoff, said she preferred a June date but was told by election officials that they couldn’t get everything in place by the year’s sixth month. A federal law is requiring more time between primary and general elections to better accommodate military and overseas absentee voters. We think that is a very good idea.

We have supported a June primary for years for not only that reason, but also because there is just too little time for most candidates to run an effective general election campaign after a primary.

This year there would only be seven weeks between the Sept. 14 primary and the Nov. 2 general election. That gives one heckuva an advantage to candidates who can bankroll their own multi-million dollar campaigns. That’s not the best public policy.

We would think that if election officials can meet an August primary this year, they should also be able to make a June primary a priority that can be met.

August would be a terrible month for a state primary election. People are fully in a summer mood and their minds, for good reason, are not on politics. That would result in an even lower turnout than the already low-to-moderate voter interest in recent September primaries.

An early June primary would be best, much better than Sep-tember and most definitely a lot better than would be August.

Mesabi Daily News

Tags: opinion, editorials, minnesota, primary