Changing the Primary System???February 24th, 2008 | 11 Comments | Posted in Analysis, Commentary, and Editorials, Op/Ed, Open Blog, Open Discussion, Primaries
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The following comment came from the “Live Chat 24/7″ section, and I felt it was worthy of a blog post. Please read it, and comment in the comments section. Have a blessed Sunday all. Mine’s not starting out too well, I’m not feeling well and my oldest child has a high fever and is feeling bad too. Keep some happy thoughts, won’t you?
Thanks. Now onto the comment:
Ann, you need to start a blog about how to change this horrific primary system. I’ll throw out some thoughts, but there are plenty of smart people on these blogs that can improve my thoughts significantly.
1) The order of the primary states in re-chosen every 4 years by random lottery one year in advance of the actual election. This will keep anomalous states from an inordinate influence of nominees. It will also prevent primary leapfrogging and compression.
2) The primaries go two weeks apart in waves of 5 states every two weeks. This might mitigate the “momentum” factor.
3) No “open” primaries. Your party gets to decide your parties’ candidate. Republicans can only vote in the republican primary, independents in the independent primary only, and democrats the same, green the same, etc. That will prohibit the other parties from gaming the system with crossover voting. If your party does not have a legitimate candidate, then maybe you need to think very hard about why that is.
4) Party voter registration is finalized 3 months in advance. No voting day registration nonsense to also game the system.
5) Delegates are divided up by the same formula in each state. Something like the Founding Fathers’ legislative concepts of a Senate and a House or Representatives. So maybe 50% (or so) of each states delegates are “winner take all,” and the remainder are strictly proportional to the actual vote.
6) Caucusing is out. This is voting by the people. Working people voting at polls, without the caucus day shenanigans (think WV).
Thoughts? Something has to be done, because what we currently have is….”broken.”

