Hard to realize that we are not too far from another marathon of primary elections. Ugh, I can hardly wait. As I recall, at times during 2016 I was, confused,frustrated, and just plain fed up with the presidential primary election process? Open, closed, proportional, winner-take-all, caucuses, uncommitted delegates, you name it, we have it in our system.
What a mess. I would give most of the states a grade of “D” on the handling of their state’s primary. We need to start over with a simple, 10-page,unambiguous federal law and get back to what elections are supposed to be about;that is, one eligible voter, one vote and that vote counts.
THE PROPOSED LAW
- INTENT: The underpinning for this law is one person, one vote that counts, all the way to the party convention, done in a more streamlined,fair system.
- CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICTS: The existing 435 districts will provide the basis for equal representation of delegates. There will be four delegates per Congressional District totaling 1740.
- LIMIT THE PRIMARY SEASON: There will be no “campaigning”before January 1st of the election year. Include in the law a very detailed,unambiguous discussion of what constitutes “campaigning”. Appoint a panel of retired federal judges to rule on complaints of campaigning before January 1st. If found guilty, the penalty will be that the candidate’s name will be removed from the ballot in the state in which the infraction occurred.
- NO CAUCUSES: Take a look inside the Iowa caucuses. On a cold evening 25 neighbors in a small community will crowd into someone’s living room and listen to speeches for several hours then vote by raising their hand. Given the option to actually go to the polls during the day, perhaps 250 folks from that same community might have actually cast a secret vote.
- FOUR VOTING DATES: There will be four regional primary election days with about fifty campaigning days for each. The actual dates will be the Sunday closest to February 19th, April 9th,May 29th and July 17th. Voting will take place on a Sunday to maximize voter participation.
- The regions will consist of a group of contiguous states with a total number of Congressional Districts closest to 109 (approximately one fourth of the 435 Representatives).For example, the Northeast Region would include the 13 states in the northeast bordered on the southern edge by Virginia and West Virginia.
The order in which the regions will hold their primaries will be based on a drawing held July 1st, six months prior to the commencement of campaigning on January 1st.
- OPEN PRIMARIES: On April 19th,2016 New York held its primary election. But not for all the voters. New York had a “closed” primary. Closed to whom? In this case 25% of the voters were registered as “other” or “Independent” and were denied the right to vote. To add insult to injury New York voters was required to have finalized party registration SIX MONTHS prior to the primary. Dumb.
Here is the fix. All political parties will hold their elections on the same day and all primaries will be “open”. No one needs to be “registered”, be on the roles or be prior-committed. Just walk up to the nice lady at the polling station, show your ID and request the party ballot you want, period. Can anyone show me that registration nonsense in the Constitution? I thought not.
- COMMITTED DELEGATES: The abomination known as“Super Delegates” and “uncommitted delegates” absolutely flies in the face of what our democracy is all about. Every delegate must be chosen by the voters.
- PROPORTIONALITY: The delegates allocated to a particular candidate in every state will be proportional to that candidate’s share of the total votes cast.
- IN OR OUT: Candidates will not be allowed to “suspend” their campaigns. A candidate is either in or out. If a candidate quits prior to the last regional primary, the delegates they have gained will be reallocated proportionally.
For example: a state has 120 delegates;candidate A got 50% of the vote (60 delegates), candidate B 30% (36 delegates)and candidate C 20% (24 delegates). Subsequently, candidate C drops out. Candidate C’s 24 delegates will be proportionally allocated to candidates A and B based on the per cent of the total vote they received.
- CONVENTION RULES: There is one more thing going on that just defies all logic and commonsense. At the 2012 Republican Convention, THE DAY BEFORE IT BEGAN, the Rules Committee met to set the rules. One new “rule” was that any candidate without a win in at least eight states would not be placed in nomination. Incredible. The Republicans did it again in 2016; the Rules Committee meet just prior to the start of the Convention.
The new federal law will simply say that the convention rules will be written and finalized by December 31st before campaigning begins on January 1st. Some will argue that it can’t be done. Certainly it can, just stop taking stupid pills and make it happen.
Marv Covault
By the way, I have just provided this proposal and three others to my re-elected Representative, Richard Hudson. The other three issues; 2018 MID-TERM ELECTIONS, TERMS AND TERM LIMITS……WHY IS ELECTION DAY TUESDAY,NOVEMBER 6TH….and A NEW WAY TO LOOK AT IMMIGRATION REFORM……are all on this wethepeoplespeaking blog. I have suggested to Representative Hudson that he take on the task of causing legislative action on all four issues. I further suggested that he attempt to get the entire North Carolina Congressional Delegation (2 Senators and 13 Representatives) to co-sponsor the bills.
My point being, if any of you would like to present any one or all of these four issues to your Senator or Representative, please do so. Thanks.