Forty years ago, the Iowa Caucuses began, and sixty years ago, the New Hampshire Primary began, and they have become the center of attention in the battle every four years to nominate the Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates.
There has been much discontent with this system, whereby these two small rural states, unrepresentative of the nation, have a much greater impact on the nomination process than they should be allowed to have.
So the author proposes for the future a Regional Primary system, in which there would be five “Super Tuesdays” spread three weeks apart, starting the second Tuesday in January and ending at the beginning of April, with each four years in a twenty year cycle, a different regional primary going first, and all the regional primaries being rotated so that each primary will, over 20 years, go first, second, third, fourth and last in the voting process, in order to make the system fair and equitable.
Each regional primary would have at least one major state in electoral votes as part of the process, so as to make the impact of all the regional primaries be considered balanced and approximately of equal impact.
There would be a NORTHEASTERN primary–consisting of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia–11 states and the nation’s capital–with a total of 112 electoral votes.
There would be a SOUTHERN primary, consisting of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana–12 states– with 135 electoral votes.
There would be a MIDWEST primary, consisting of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma–13 states–with 125 electoral votes.
There would be a SOUTHWEST-MOUNTAIN STATES primary, consisting of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho–9 states–and 85 electoral votes.
And finally, there would be a PACIFIC COAST primary, with Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska and Hawaii–5 states–with 81 electoral votes.
With the primaries being regional and rotating, all states over a twenty year period would have equal impact, and campaigning would be easier, as the mileage differences would be minor since all the states competing on the same day, and with three weeks between primary dates, would be convenient for campaign swings and travel.
This would be a much better system than the crazy, disjointed one we now have, and would get the American people much more motivated, involved, and likely to participate in the primaries!