Can a non-American ask you something about your primary system?

[glarius]

I find something puzzling. I keep hearing that there is a problem at the moment because certain States are changing the dates of their primary votes because they don't want others to get ahead of them. What I don't understand is....why don't all states have the vote on the same day? Wouldn't that have prevented this problemin the first place? Have I missed something here?:hi:

[jsamuel]

1. ....

:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

[glarius]

7. Sorry.......I don't get your point??? n/t

[jsamuel]

9. I am just saying that it can be a very tumultuous subject.

[Vincardog]

2. The point of the primaries is to let local folks have a chance to get to know the candidates.

If they are all on the same day you have to have a lot of money to run TV adds. You never get to meet and greet the folks in the smaller states. Only the well funded candidates will have any chance of affecting the race.

[htuttle]

3. The underlying reason for a lot of weird election stuff in the US

...is that the constitution specifically puts the responsibility for running elections in the hands of the States. This makes any sort of uniformity quite difficult.

IIRC, back in the early days of the republic, there weren't presidential elections at all -- candidates were chosen by parties and electoral college delegates were all appointed at the state level. It's essentially the same today, with the difference being that these delegates are 'supposed' to vote (in the general election) for whatever presidential candidate won their state. There is no legal guarantee of this, however.

Please remember that we are still running a fairly buggy version of Democracy 1.0 (beta), unlike Canada and most of Europe, which both run newer versions. Perhaps one of these days we'll get around to upgrading...

[CanonRay]

4. We haven't been able to get all 50 states to agree on anything.

The last time all the states agreed on something, there were only 13.

[AllegroRondo]

5. Its supposed to give candidates with less money a chance

if all 50 were the same day, only the candidates with huge amounts of money could afford to campaign in all the states and get votes.

by breaking it down, a candidate really only has to concentrate on New Hampshire and Iowa at first, which is possible on a much smaller budget. If they do well there, they will definitely get more money donated and can expand the campaign to the next states.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. The theory of state sovereignty

In theory, every state is sovereign except for the very few, carefully delimited powers granted to the federal government. Because Congress does not have authority to regulate things like primary elections, that authority belongs to the state. (It would take an amendment to the US Constitution before Congress could pass such a law.)

[treestar]

8. The States run the elections

Technically, the states elect the president rather than the people directly. They send electors, thus "electoral votes."

Each state has its own elections and election rules.

At the beginning, states had a lot more power vis-a-vis the federal government. That got watered down after the Civil War by Amendments to the Constitution and in the 20th century got further watered down by the Supreme Courts interpretations.