Primary election blurs the lines of party affiliation

There are more Democrats and fewer Republicans headed into Tuesday's primary election, but the party of Jefferson and Jackson shouldn't celebrate yet.

Nebraska is still very much a red state, with 49 percent Democrats, 33 percent Republican and 17 percent Independent.

Still, 14,000 more people registered as Democrats since the beginning of the year, and the number of registered Republicans decreased by 5,000.

Democratic Party officials naturally attribute the increase to their hard work as well as negative feelings about the war in Iraq and the economy, while Republicans don't see any major "philosophical change" in the state.

Overall 7,300 more people registered to vote, for just a little more than 1.1 million registered voters.

We tend to agree that President Bush's disapproval rating probably cost the Republican Party members, but we also think the novelty of the Democratic Party caucuses earlier this year drew many into that fold.

We suspect party lines would be even more blurred -- and the number of registered Independents would climb sharply, if Nebraska were to adopt an open primary system.

More importantly, and more disappointing whatever your affiliation, is the number released by Nebraska Secretary of State John Gale, that only 27 percent of use are expected to turn out to vote Tuesday.

There are "good" reasons we won't -- the Democratic Caucuses have already favored Barack Obama, and Sen. John McCain has the Republican nomination sewn up.

There are few high-profile races throughout the state, and only a limited number of county offices on the ballot.

Still, we hope voters will support Amendment 1 to allow public endowment funds to be managed more effectively, and the race for the Democratic U.S. Senate nomination is at least interesting because of the involvement of Sen. Ben Nelson associate Tony Raimondo and rising star Scott Kleeb.

But we hope more than 27 percent of us turn out to vote Tuesday. It is a travesty that less than a third of us bother to help make decisions that affect the other two thirds of the registered voters, not to mention those ineligible to vote.

It's also a continuing argument for making the casting of ballots as easy as possible, such as through the mail-in system already in place in Nebraska.

Regardless of party affiliation, the opportunity to take part in such a basic exercise in representative government should not be restricted to only one day and one time.