{"id":5516,"date":"2012-02-13T08:46:02","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T13:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=5516"},"modified":"2012-02-13T11:15:01","modified_gmt":"2012-02-13T16:15:01","slug":"primary-election-season-baffles-voters-with-muddled-dates-meaningless-contests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/02\/13\/primary-election-season-baffles-voters-with-muddled-dates-meaningless-contests\/","title":{"rendered":"Primary election season baffles voters with muddled dates, meaningless contests"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Meaningless? A photograph of the 2008 Iowa caucus (Source: Wikipedia)<\/p><\/div>\n

Over the weekend, Maine held another GOP presidential straw poll (a “win” for Mitt Romney), and there was also yet another survey held at the conservative CPAC conference — one that Romney managed to capture.<\/p>\n

But in a political season that has already tipped toward self-parody, journalists found themselves struggling (once again) to explain that none of these votes actually mean anything.<\/p>\n

You win the nomination to be a presidential contender by gathering enough of your party’s committed voting delegates.<\/p>\n

But the Maine “vote” was part of a complicated municipal caucus process that doesn’t lead to the allocation of any actual delegates.\u00a0 Not one.\u00a0 Delegates won’t actually be named and locked in from that state until the spring.<\/p>\n

The same is true for balloting last week in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado.\u00a0 In those contests, Rick Santorum claimed a lot of momentum but picked up exactly zero actual delegates.<\/p>\n

Minnesota and Colorado’s contests were “non-binding.” And Missouri had no delegates at stake.\u00a0 What the heck?<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, caucus procedures in Iowa and Nevada have come under harsh fire from Republicans for being outdated, exclusionary and downright inaccurate.<\/p>\n

Here’s one top Republican official from New Jersey, quoted by Politico<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cAll the candidates are out there slogging around at Christmastime and New Year\u2019s, and then they produce a non-result result and they can\u2019t even get the count right,\u201d said David Norcross, a former Republican National Committee general counsel and New Jersey GOP committeeman.<\/p>\n

Norcross told POLITICO that Iowa\u2019s Jan. 3 caucuses were \u201cnumbingly stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow foolish is it for everyone to go to Iowa the first week in January when there are no delegates selected and they can\u2019t even get the vote right? It\u2019s just a joke, it\u2019s Iowa\u2019s joke on you and all of us.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Combine this muddled theater with the endless presidential debates and the fringey cast of GOP contenders, and it’s no wonder Republican interest in voting has dropped off significantly in 2012.<\/p>\n

New York state, meanwhile, has its own version of primary-season madness<\/p>\n

Currently, we’re slated to have three different primary votes, one on April 24th for the presidential race, another for congressional races on June 26th, and a third for state offices on September 11th.<\/p>\n

It’s hard to imagine a better way to minimize civic interest than to force people to jump through so many hoops.<\/p>\n

This seems like one chunk of our byzantine political system that might be open to reform. Both parties should hold straight-up primaries, with actual secret ballots cast by actual voters in actual polling places.<\/p>\n

No more silly 19th century rituals, no more party bosses engineering junior-high popularity contests designed to sway news coverage.<\/p>\n

Votes should be held on a consolidated calendar, so that all the primaries for local, state and Federal offices are conducted on the same day.\u00a0 And when votes are cast, they should actually matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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