No to caucuses; they are inherently undemocratic. (0.00 / 0)

And the caucuses have led us directly to this mess we're now in -- we need to get rid of the caucuses, now.

I, personally, like the idea of having the states go in fourths -- but the idea of "vote anytime, count often" works, too.

As for the "eliminate independent voting," I don't agree with that.  (I know you said "no cross-over voting," but this also throws out Independents.)  I think independents should pick one party to go to the primary in and be allowed to participate and vote the same as anyone else -- and I, personally, like open primaries even though they are annoying -- the Obama people used political gamesmanship to win the Montana open primary, for example.

Anyway, the first and easiest thing to do is simple:  disallow caucuses.  Get rid of 'em; they are not democratic and they are not a fair reflection of the will of the voters whatsoever.

There's no excuse for this, DNC.  None.

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by: LSekhmet @ Thu Jul 17, 2008 at 15:31:22 PM CDT

not democratic (0.00 / 0)

not secret, vulnerable to gaming, bad idea.  And no to pugs voting in our primaries. that's also an invitation for gaming. And yes to super's breaking deadlocks, not to getting bought by candidates.  We need reform now.  It's too late for this time, but we still need it now.  

Hillary - alternative energy

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by: anna shane @ Thu Jul 17, 2008 at 20:11:58 PM CDT

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Here in Illinois, we've always had open primaries. (0.00 / 0)

No one here is officially registered as a Repub or Dem. We're also a pretty strange state in that we've always had some candidates who are just plain excellent, regardless of party. My current State Rep. is a Repub, and she's outstanding, while my State Senator is a Dem and he's also very good. (I realize that we're talking national primaries here, but I use that just as an example).

Anyway, the point is that every state would have to agree to closed primaries. That sounds almost as difficult as getting an amendment to the Constitution. I like the idea, but I think there would need to be restrictions such that if you were an Independent, then registered to vote Dem, you could not re-register until after the national election. Something like that.

Thankfully, we've never had caucuses here. I would be part of a class-action lawsuit to eliminate the caucus if that's what we were offered. Perhaps that's the way to attack the caucus issue anyway--individual state lawsuits.

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by: grayslady @ Thu Jul 17, 2008 at 20:27:35 PM CDT

[ Parent | ]