Election reform?

[Uben]

Why don't we just have a national election day? Why all the primary hype? We all go to the polls on election day, vote for our candidate, count the damned votes, winner becomes president. Isn't that the way it should be? Yeah, I understand it would take billions of dollars out of the pockets of the media, politicians, and special interests, but...uh,.....do you really give damn?

[MH1]

1. We would need ranked-choice voting (also called Instant Run Off)

to handle the plethora of candidates, if we don't have primaries.

Both of the major parties have been fighting IRV, although I don't know why.

I posted positively about it once in the "Election Reform" forum here, and was spat on, so you all can just go ahead with the spoiler-susceptible system we have now. But that system requires the primary debacle.

[Exilednight]

2. There's a lot of reason as to why this shouldn't happen.............

1. Campaigns would begin even earlier than they do now. Running a national campaign is very expensive. Hillary and Obama have already jointly spent somewhere between 1/4 and a 1/3 billion dollars on this election.

2. Because of the money issues, lesser known candidates would never make it onto ballots. We would have never heard of a Governor from Hope Arkansas or a charismatic and highly intelligent African-American from Illinois. We'd be stuck with the Mondale's and Stevenson's of the party.

3. Running a national campaign requires huge organization and political machines. It would take the grassroots and netroots groups out of the equation and leave all the power in the hands of people like the Daly legacy in Chicago and Rendell in Pa.

I do agree that there needs to be some form of reform, but a national primary is out of the question and seems very undemocratic.

[stillcool]

3. I think we are....

too accustomed to fast results. Bobby Kennedy was killed in June, when he had just won California. I think the Primary System we have is good for voters being able to see the candidates. There has been much that has been revealed in the process that I would not have known. I can't see it as having a down side. The problem I have with this Primary Season are the threats of what a candidate might do if the results are not to their liking. I also think that we are witnessing a Primary Season unlike any other, as is apparent from the unprecedented numbers of people participating.