Reed promotes regional presidential primaries for 2012

Reed promotes regional presidential primaries for 2012

Ballot-box2Secretary of State Reed is ramping up efforts to persuade the national political parties to reform the country’s “dysfunctional” system of picking our White House nominees.

Reed and the National Association of Secretaries of State are hoping the parties will replace the current free-for-all system of increasingly early primaries with a more rational system of rotating regional primaries. Reed, a former NASS president and a senior member of its committee on primary reform,  made the case to a study committee of the Republican National Committee in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

At the very least, Reed said, the American voters and the campaigns themselves would greatly appreciate it if the parties would agree to start the 2012 primaries later in the winter.

The 2008 White House race, with no incumbent running on either major ticket, started extremely early, with 37 states and the District of Columbia voting by the end of February, combined with nine in 2000, Reed noted.  Eighteen states leapfrogged to earlier on the calendar and candidates were forced to campaign and air commercials for the January caucuses and primaries during the holidays of November and December of 2007, a full year before the election.  Reed said:

“There is a growing call for a process that is logical, orderly and fair.”

The preferred plan, he said, would allow Iowa and New Hampshire to keep their earliest-in-the-nation honor, and then cluster the other states into geographic regions, mixing small, medium and large states. Regional primaries would be held in March, April, May and June, with the order rotating every four years.  Secretary Reed added:

“By design, the plan encourages caniddates to become well-versed on issues facing all regions of the U.S., not just those taking priority in early primary states.  Candidates, voters and political party members are increasingly frustrated and confused by our seemingly arbitary and chaotic process. … It is time to establish a process that gives every state and its voters a reasonable opportunity to play a role in the selection of the presidential nominees, with results that are representative of all regions of the country.”

2 thoughts on “Reed promotes regional presidential primaries for 2012

  1. I know this is off the subject although I have too get this off my chest.

    All Canadates requesting ballot acess in the primarys should be required to provide a long form birth certificate proving they are Constitutionally qualified to be President/Vice President. Don’t let them take part in the primarys until they do so! I REPEAT DO NOT GIVE A CANADATE BALLOT ACCESS WITHOUT A LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIFICATE ON FILE WITH SECRETARY REED!

    Natural born US Citizen = Two US Citizen Parent(s) and born in a State or federally recognized Tertorary and the parents not owing alegience to a forign power, ie multiable forign citizenship(s).

    I hope that in the future, Congress and the several states shall have “CONCURRENT POWER” to enforce the Natural Born Citizen Clause by appropiate legislation.

    Sincerely,

    Bruce Town

  2. I dont really see the point of starting the 2012 primaries later in the winter!
    But I totally agree that “There is a growing call for a process that is logical, orderly and fair” but I don’t know that that is the solution..
    Just my 2 cents…………

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