How to Fix the Primary System

This piece is a few weeks old but relevant especially to people who live in states like Kentucky where the primaries for the presidential election do not occur until May. By this time primary candidates are already chosen and many states have virtually no say in the selection. It also leads to messes like we had this year when a couple of states moved their primaries up in the schedule to have more of a say but ultimately hurt themselves by breaking party rules and causing them to be shunned by candidates.

A new system is being proposed by the nation's secretaries of state. Kentucky's Secretary of State, Trey Grayson had this to say about the bill.

To remedy the problems, the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) proposes a revolving regional primary system.

"We start with Iowa and New Hampshire, leave them in their traditional front status, because we think it's valuable for a couple of small states to start off, so that under-funded and lesser-known candidates have a shot to compete and we can have some true, retail politicking," Grayson said.

But once voters in Iowa and New Hampshire have their say, the plan divides the country into four geographic regions, with primaries to start in March.

"Each of those regions has a primary - a Super Tuesday, if you will - but it will be a regional Super Tuesday, and we stretch it out over the next four months," he said.

Lots will be drawn, and whatever region goes first - East, West, North or South - would go last the next presidential year and work its way up towards the top, so that over a 16-year cycle, each region will get a chance to go first, last, and be in the middle, Grayson said.

Something like this sounds great in theory. Like I said, as a voter in Kentucky where the primary isn't held until May 20th the current system is extremely frustrating. And the article goes on to explain why the current system works against us. It's a chaotic mess with states and campaigns jockeying for position to win the most delegates early on so that the remaining ones will not matter.