For those living in states with late caucuses or primaries

Page 1 of 1 [ 3 posts ] 

AnonymousAnonymous
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 23 Nov 2006
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 69,880
Location: Portland, Oregon

16 Feb 2008, 6:27 pm

As a resident of Oregon, the state's primary is in May,
but there is a possibility that it all may change in the 2012 elections.

Here's how.

The entire country will be divided up into four regions.
The first region will have primaries in March, then the next region in April, and so on.
In the following presidential elections, the next region will be first to vote.

Exceptions are Iowa, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands,
since the first two have caucuses & primaries in January.

Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands
will hold their own caucuses & primaries as they see fit
since they are not part of the mainland.

What do you think?


_________________
Silly NTs, I have Aspergers, and having Aspergers is gr-r-reat!


Orwell
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 8 Aug 2007
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 12,518
Location: Room 101

16 Feb 2008, 6:44 pm

Dumb idea, in my opinion. What if the first region to go is the South? We know that the South is not representative of the country as a whole, but candidates who do poorly in that region's primaries will be forced to drop because no one will lend credibility to their campaign making a comeback and they won't receive any media coverage. The same issue will be there regardless of which region goes first-the Northeast is not representative of the country as a whole either, and their going first would put a very liberal bias to the election. Anyways, who has the power to decide centrally when a state will have its primary/caucus? I'm pretty sure that's a state-by-state thing, and it would be next to impossible to get everyone to agree to a centralized system unless you just have a national primary.
Besides, I don't like the fundamental nature of our political system, the least of my worries is when we hold primaries. I'd rather focus on introducing some real competition to the system by breaking down the two (nearly identical) big parties and allowing a number of smaller parties to fill in the void.


_________________
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH


pandabear
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 16 Aug 2007
Age: 65
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,402

17 Feb 2008, 11:02 am

The South is not representative of the nation as a whole. However, the South votes solidly Republican. With other parts of the country being less monolithic, the whole country ends up going with the solid South.