1. End the Iowa and New Hampshire monopoly. There are several competing plans, all better than the status quo. I would rotate by region, using the geographic splits in Sandy Levin’s Interregional Primary Plan. So:
Region 1: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont; Massachusetts; Connecticut, Rhode Island; Delaware, New Jersey; New York; Pennsylvania.
Region 2: Maryland; West Virginia; Missouri; Indiana; Kentucky; Tennessee.
Region 3: Ohio; Illinois; Michigan; Wisconsin; Iowa; Minnesota.
Region 4: Texas; Louisiana; Arkansas, Oklahoma; Colorado; Kansas, Nebraska; Arizona, New Mexico.
Region 5: Virginia; North Carolina; South Carolina; Florida; Georgia; Mississippi, Alabama.
Region 6: California; Washington; Oregon; Idaho, Nevada, Utah; Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming; Hawaii, Alaska.
First time through, the leading region would be chosen by lottery. Next cycle, that region would go last, and everyone else would move up a date. I’d hold one regional primary on late January, February, March, April, and May. Or move them up a month to end in June.
Each one of those groupings gives us a great deal of demographic diversity, given all of our party’s stakeholders a say in choosing our nominee.
Region 6 gave me pause, given the large number of states and inclusion of California, making it an expensive region with which to start the primary calendar. However, there appears to be a method to Levin’s madness—by including so many smaller states that day, it would allow a candidate to focus on those cheaper, smaller states and pick up candidacy-boosting victories, even if blown out in delegate-rich California. Still, feel free to tweak the regions to come up with a better map.
2. All vote by mail. Nothing easier, more inclusive, and democratic. No lines, no voter disenfranchisement at the polls, no nothing. It works amazing in Oregon, and we’re almost there in California. My favorite part? I get the ballot then set aside several hours, at my convenience, so I can research every question on the ballot. Judgeships? I look them all up. (In California, a conservative group conveniently rated all judges, so I voted opposite what they recommended.) Ballot measures? Google away! Every ballot vote is a deeply informed vote.
I know people cling to romantic ideals of showing up on election day and getting your “I voted” sticker, but those romantic ideals aren’t so romantic in non-conservative precincts, where our core voters have to wait in line for hours to exercise their franchise. The physical ballot box is the greatest disenfranchisement tool available to conservatives, and we cling to it at our own detriment.
3. Barring that, two weeks of early voting, extended-hours voting, and excuse-free absentee balloting. People have busy schedules and real-world responsibilities. Voting should work around people’s lives, not the other way around.
4. Same-day new voter registration. Happily welcome any newly engaged person who wants to participate.
5. No party switchers for three months. This is the controversial one at the moment given New York’s 6-month party switch deadline, but if you are too cool or iconoclastic or contrarian to be a member of a party, then you don’t get a say in that party’s nomination. I know people like to show how righteous they are by being “independent,” yet vote for the same party anyway all the time (looking at you, tea party and many liberals). It’s a free country! Knock yourself out! But don’t whine then about not being given a choice to choose a leader in someone else’s club. You want a say, become a member of that party. No one will think any less of you. (Unless you chose the Republican Party.)
You don’t like the direction your party is headed, the primary system is one of the best ways to force it to reverse course (see Party, Tea).
6. No open primaries. See above. Democratic primaries are for Democrats. Republican primaries are for Republicans. If independents want a primary vote, they can create their party and vote for Jesse Ventura or Ross Perot or whoever. I don’t care because that wouldn’t be my party, so none of my business.
7. No caucuses. No secret ballot, exclusionary, disruptive. The proof is in the pudding: turnout at caucuses is abysmal. One problem here is that some states can’t afford to hold separate elections, hence the parties foot the caucus bill. Honestly not sure of the solution, other than better coordinating other state and municipal elections around the primary schedule. Or, see #2 above—vote by mail. It’s cheap! Make the parties count their own ballots, and you’ve got yourself a cost-effective, all-inclusive primary.
If a state insisted on sticking with caucuses, they could! But by running a system that generates only 20 percent of the turnout, you’d have to surrender 80 percent of the delegates to the national convention. It’s only fair—you exclude people from participating, the party excludes your delegates from participating.