Thursday, August 9, 2007

Solution for primary date-hopping

So every state wants to have their primary 1st, and all the "we're first" states are engaged in a childish game of oneupmanship to see who can be the last person to set a date for their primary and "win". Soon, primaries will be so far before the actual elections, you might as well schedule them at the same time as the previous election; at least it's a good minimum.

Hey, I got a solution for all you geniuses in the various states who want to be competitive for the right to have politicians actually care how your state votes in its primary. Instead of playing leapfrog with all the other kids, pass a law which sets your primary date as the same day as the earliest primary held by any other state. Once you have 20 or so states with this law/procedure in place, it won't matter which of the "we're 1st, nah nah" states actually gets the first primary date, cause half the nation will automatically also vote at the same time.

Moreover, it cuts the Gordien knot of multiple states having laws which set their primaries "x days before" the earliest other state, since the new law doesn't set a primary date explicitly at all. Let New Hampshire and Iowa wrestle over the proverbial baby rattle, and whoever wins automatically becomes irrelevant as they implicitly set the primary date for California, Florida, and all the other states with real electoral power. GENIUS!

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