Too Many Primaries Too Soon

It appears that various state Democratic parties are all set to select up to 59% of all delegates to the 2008 presidential nominating convention on Super Tuesday, Feb 5, 2007. And the Republicans still have time to join them.

They are doing this because they want to have as big an influence as possible on the presidential nominating process.

And what will be the effects of this “election before the election”? One obvious effect will be that candidates will have to declare their intention to run early in the process, and that tends to work against long-shot late comers.

Also, candidates will not be able to campaign much in every state so they are likely to concentrate time, money and personal appearances on states with lots of delegates, like California (370) and New York (232). Instead of spending time in the smaller states, like Montana (15) and Delaware (15), they are likely to just spend money.

So instead of opening up the nominating process and making it more democratic, Super Tuesday pushes it even more in the direction of big money and fat cat sponsors.

Furthermore, the primaries are being held far too early in the nominating process. Voters won’t know much about the candidates and many voters are likely to not vote at all. Again, this shifts the advantage toward big money and fat cats. The primaries should be held no sooner than one month before the nominating conventions. This is true also of Iowa and New Hampshire. Allowing these two small states to have the influence on the nominating process they have now is just as bad as going to Super Tuesday.

It’s probably too late to do anything about the 2008 election because of all the bureaucracy and inertia involved, but one alternative should be explored. This is the possibility of holding a national primary on the internet. Some organization such as the Democratic Party or Move On would sponsor the primary and would invite all who are interested to sign up. At sign-up time, the potential voter would be issued an identification number. When the vote takes place, which could cover an extended period, only those who had an ID number (which could be verified) would be allowed to vote. If the Democrats and the Republicans coordinated their ID systems, extensive crossover voting could be avoided.