Posted on 02/11/2008 10:21:27 AM PST by nitzy
A new primary system
Why do we use the same primary voting system in the 21st century that we did in the 18th? The old system was set up to counter the inconveniences of time and distance. Advances in communication have overcome these obstacles yet we vote as if those advances had never been made at all. A new system could be devised which would take special interests, party bosses and smoke filled back rooms out of the process. This new system would give the power to the party faithful and ensure that the party nominee would be chosen by the people and not the institutions, the contributors, the other party’s infiltrators or the media.
An online primary system could be set up which would fulfill all of these goals and transform American politics forever. I propose a system of 5 online contests over the primary election season. The five contests would each be spaced a month apart. The online elections would pare the filed from 50 to 20 to 10 to 4 to 2 and ultimately one final party nominee who will inherit an enormous war chest with which to wage the general election battle. Each online vote would be comprised of two parts: an endorsement for a particular candidate AND a $20 donation to the party. The donation would have to be made with a Paypal account or credit card issued to an individual and each individual registered party member will be limited to one vote.
Approximately 20 million party members will have participated in each of the primary contests this election cycle. If just 25% of those voters cast votes in all 5 of the online contests, a war chest of $500 million dollars would be waiting for the eventual nominee of the party to be used in the general election. Each member will have donated a maximum of $100 to the party. This $500 million will come with NO STRINGS other than a promise to follow the platform of the party and not the wishes of any other financial contributors. In order to ensure party loyalty trumps special interests the nominee will only be able to use his party’s donation to execute his general election campaign. $500 million is the amount that political observers are predicting will be spent by each of the candidates in this year’s general election so he would not be at any disadvantage.
no, but some ideas to throw out for disussion (in no particular order):
1. numeer of convention delegates be related to the number of republican electors sent to tthe last electoral college.
2. number of delegates be related to the number of republican congress-critters and senators.
3. delegates be selected on a county by county basis (so more conservative upstate counties have some influence).
4. delegates be selected in proportion to the total vote for each candidate on a statewide basis. I think this is similar to what the democrats are doing this cycle, except they have the superdelegates.
On diluting the impact of the large liberal states - or - keeping the opinions of the smaller conservative states from being overlooked:
a. states are allowed to select their primary date in SIZE order, so the large states are not all at the same time, or even too close to each other (assuming the primaries are a month apart as you suggested)
b. more conservative states have their primaries earlier.
What do you think?
numeer = number
National primary day.
Some thoughts, IMHO:
The purpose of the primaries will be to narrow the number of candidates to two (more on this below).
The idea of “delegates” needs to be dumped. Too complicated. Too susceptible to corruption. Instead, each candidate keeps the number of votes he/she received. Hopefully, this will keep the process competitive throughout all the primaries.
By having a random draw to determine when a state will have its primary I think the large and small states will be generally distributed over all the dates.
At the convention, each state is allocated electors based on the number of House members be they be RAT or PUB.
A poll is taken and each elector votes for one of the two candidates. If neither candidate polls more than 55%, the poll is done again. This is repeated until one of the candidates gets at least 55%. That candidate becomes the party candidate.
Another thought on the convention, assuming we continue to have a two party system. The first year this is implemented there is a coin flip. Heads wins and gets to choose either Sep 1-15 or Sep 14-30 to hold their convention. Thereafter, the two week periods are rotated. But both conventions are always held in September.
Thoughts?
Should floor nominations be allowed at the convention? If so, what are the qualifications?
Second convention date, obviously, should be Sep 16-30.
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