Our Primary System Sucks for President

Let me explain why I'm making this post. For the majority of my voting life, I lived in Indiana where having a primary for President is beyond pointless. Indiana's primary isn't until the first Tuesday in May. The Presidential candidates are already decided by that point making the state not matter. It's perfectly fine for local and state elections, but for President it is beyond useless. The second reason for the post relates to my new state/situation. Colorado has chosen to move to Feb. 5 (Super Tuesday) this year. Originally, I was excited. Now I get to vote in a primary that actually effects the outcome. However, I have found out that Colorado does not offer an open primary. Meaning that only voters registered with a political party get to vote. Indiana has an open primary where anyone can vote, they just choose which primary to participate in (Dem or Rep). I value the ability to stay independent and vote for the best candidate, regardless of party. I understand that being a registered party member does not require you to vote that way, but why register if you plan on voting for the other party. It's ridiculous.

In summary, here's what I don't like about our primary system. Some states are overvalued (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, etc.), while other states are ignored (Indiana, and any other state after Super Tuesday). The voting process is different in states: caucus, primary, open primary, closed primary, or even a mixture (Colorado has a caucus and a primary...huh?). This doesn't even mention the amount of time candidates spend running. This year especially, it seems that the candidates have been campaigning forever.

What's that? You want to know how I would fix it. Well, I'm glad you asked. First, let's deal with the campaigning season. There needs to be a national filing date. Not a final date (file by date), but a date (file on...not before or after). You file that day or you don't file at all. Second, you can't raise money or form a committee until you file. Thereby, the national filing date would be the start of the campaigning season. I would recommend the first Monday after the new year (Jan. 7th of this year). Alright, now that's settled, when do we get to vote?

I have several ideas for how to then do the primaries. First and most preferred would be a national primary day (none of this let's move our date forward crap...Michigan and Florida). No caucuses, strictly voting in open primaries. Available to everyone regardless of party affiliation. I'll stick with the choose a party to vote for method, but anyone can vote. Also, I think the nominating delegates should be divided based on percentage. If someone wins a state with 30%, and second gets 25%, then they get 30 and 25% of the delegates from that state, respectively. No winner take all contests. That way, you can always feel like your vote counted toward something. As for a date, I would go with the Indiana date in first of May. That gives candidates 4 months to campaign and raise funds. Not a ton of time, but enough. Plus, that gives June for the party conventions and ~4-5 months to campaign for President.

The other way to do the primary would be regionalized. States would be divided into 5 regions based on location and delegates (some would be larger, more states, than others). The regions would vote on consecutive weeks in May. That way we still hold to the timeline established above. Also, the voting order of the regions would rotate. That way every 5 years, each state would vote in the opening week of primaries. Again, I would hold to the no caucuses and anyone can vote method.

In summary: Candidates file in January. Campaign until primaries in May (either all at once, or regionalized over the month). Conventions choose their nominee in June. Campaigning begins again and continues until the election in November. One year, every state and vote counts, and we get a new President.

Now, if only they would take my advice here, and then ask me about the Electoral College....