The proportion of people not affiliated with a political party has gone in one direction in Oregon: up.

In February 2001, Oregon had 1.9 million registered voters, with roughly 414,000 unaffiliated, 757,000 registered Democrats and 691,000 Republicans. This February, Oregon has roughly 3 million registered voters, with roughly 1 million unaffiliated, 1 million registered Democrats and 700,000 registered Republicans.

People are moving away from the two major parties. So it was curious to listen to the response from legislators Wednesday, who represent parties Oregonians have been leaving, react to a bill that would open up Oregon’s primaries instead of letting the parties control them.

We didn’t hear a joyful reaction from the House Committee on Rules. House Bill 3166 does contain, in its original form, an allowance for ranked-choice voting, which voters did just reject in November.

There was also a reluctance to weaken the party system.

Rep. Christine Drazan, R-Canby, suggested, among many things, that the parties need to do a better job of explaining what they stand for and inviting people to join them.

That seemed to puzzle state Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend. He said he was still trying to wrap his head around the bill. He didn’t understand how the solution would be to invite people into the parties when they are leaving.

“I don’t know if I disagree with you but I am not 100% sure the next step is to bring people into one of two parties,” Kropf said.

It’s not good that so many Oregonians are disenfranchised from the major party primaries that determine who will be in the general election. But to expect members of the two major parties to fix it seems to be too much to ask.