Wulfric Democratic Primary Reform Plan

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Comments Welcome.

-----------------------

The Democratic primaries this year can be described in one phrase: In dire need of reform. Too many states hold caucuses, and a handful hold closed primaries with ridiculous registration deadlines. A small number of states always get to vote first. One candidate (Clinton) used early superdelegate endorsements to scare away at least 5 potential opponents, rather than actually demonstrating why she was better than them she simply screeched "GET BEHIND ME AND QUIT COMPLAINING!" (Biden, Warren, Hickenlooper, Klobuchar, Schweitzer). The debate schedule was designed to benefit Mrs. Clinton. Too many delegates lie in areas where no democrats live. Attempts were made to lock Mr. Sanders out of important voter identification data.

It is clear that superdelegates must stick around. The party must always be able to have some say at the convention. 2016 has shown that voters cannot be trusted to pick their own presidents. Just as the electors provide a check in the general, super delegates should provide that check in the primary. But they must not be allowed to give a candidate a 400-essentially 0 delegate lead upon them entering the race. The public is prevented from taking a serious look at the candidates because the media and the officials themselves just scream out the endorsements and then ask why people aren't getting in line yet.

Open primaries are bad because outright republicans should not be in the democratic primary. Caucuses are not very accessible to most voters, but we must settle for a partial elimination as the backlash would be tremendous if they were banned entirely. But New York style closed primaries are bad as well. No one should be expected to register themselves properly the year before the election is held. Also, since independents may be willing to vote for the party, they deserve a voice as well.

Also, there is nothing special about Iowa and New Hampshire that merits them going first every time. There are also way too many delegates allocated to southern states, where basically no democrats live. Places like Oklahoma and Alabama should have a small number of delegates because they never vote for democrats and never will. Texas is the best example of this; no state should get a pass on voting for the party because of its population.

So, let's look at the changes I would make to the democratic primary.

-----------------------
1. Caucuses are only allowed if they are held on or before Super Tuesday, when the most attention is being paid to the primary process and media coverage and turnout is at its best. At least one day of no-excuse absentee balloting must be permitted. All delegates must be bound at the precinct caucus; no more county conventions or state conventions based on who is still motivated enough to show up.

2. For primaries, at least three days of no-excuse Absentee balloting must be permitted. Most states do this anyways, but may as well stamp it in here to prevent anyone from going rogue.

3. Superdelegates are not allowed to endorse more than a month before the first contest, regardless of whether it is a primary or a caucus. No candidate is allowed to accumulate more than 150 superdelegate endorsements before March 15th. If either of these rules is broken, the rulebreaking superdelegate(s) will only be allowed to have a half-vote at the convention. For every twenty illegal endorsements , the implicated candidate shall become ineligible to receive delegates at two randomly chosen future contests (so 40 illegal endorsements makes it four random future contests, and so on) , with any delegates they would have otherwise received being allocated to the winner of that contest (or the second-place finisher if the rulebreaking candidate won the contest). If a superdelegate breaks these rules twice, they will no longer be allowed to be a delegate.

4. The number of sanctioned debates that are held before super tuesday is to be no less than 10, or the total number of candidates being regularly included in the national polls, whichever is greater. Such debates must never be held on a Friday or Saturday night, or on any night that includes any of the following: Professional Sports Playoffs (any round), NCAA Finals or Semi-Finals, Academy Awards Shows, or the first round of televised professional sports drafts.

5. States with partisan registration have the following options for controlling registration for their contest: Closed with a registration deadline no sooner than three weeks before the contest, or a Semi-closed/semi-open contest (i.e. open to independents) with a registration deadline no sooner than two months before the contest. If a state elects to have no partisan registration, a voter signing an affidavit that says they are in general agreement with the principles of the democratic party shall make them eligible to vote in that state's contest. The state must not require this affidavit to be signed more than three weeks before the contest.

6. States that have not voted for a Democratic President, Senator, or Governor during the last 5 election cycles, including midterms, shall not be allowed to have more than 20 pledged delegates, regardless of their population.

7. The states allowed to hold contests before super tuesday may change each cycle. Every state that gave at least 45% of their vote to the democratic presidential nominee in the last presidential election shall have an equal chance of being selected to be an early state at a random drawing done at a DNC meeting with surrogates from each campaign allowed to observe the process. States not selected to be an early state will be free to schedule their contest on their own, but not before super tuesday. If an ineligible state schedules an early contest anyways, their pledged delegate slots at the convention shall be cut by 80%.

8. No candidate can be locked out of their voter identification database without a court order, no matter what.

[LLR]

1. I like, but it would've helped Hillary.

2. Indifferent, also helps hillary (I think)

3. YES! I've been thinking of something like this for a while. But I'd change it a little
-Superdelegates can only endorse after their state has voted.
-Online counters may not include superdelegates

4. Good

5. Don't really like the signing thing, but ok

6. Dumb. Texas would get 20 delegates when it has many more Democrats. Also disenfranchising minorities so their votes count less.

7. Iowa would get pissed (not a bad thing)

8. YES!

[muon2]

Comments Welcome.

-----------------------


5. States with partisan registration have the following options for controlling registration for their contest: Closed with a registration deadline no sooner than three weeks before the contest, or a Semi-closed/semi-open contest (i.e. open to independents) with a registration deadline no sooner than two months before the contest. If a state elects to have no partisan registration, a voter signing an affidavit that says they are in general agreement with the principles of the democratic party shall make them eligible to vote in that state's contest. The state must not require this affidavit to be signed more than three weeks before the contest.

IL like many other states pays for the primary and has no partisan registration. The party can request changes, but has no actual say in the process. Voters may register on the same day as the primary and ask the election judge for any of the available party ballots. The IL SC has said that voters are not bound by previous election cycles when voting in a primary and they are free to switch parties. This party switching decision was later codified. I doubt the state judiciary would allow a voter affidavit of affiliation given its recent history. What happens if the state does not comply?

[BundouYMB]

6. would be the single greatest disenfranchisement of blacks since they were given the right to vote.

[SWE]

6. would be the single greatest disenfranchisement of blacks since they were given the right to vote.

Plus, it makes zero logical sense. The fact that Democrats have lost is hardly the fault of Democratic primary voters-you know, the people who vote Democrat.

[Blair]

This is awful; Hillary didn't win because of the super-delegate system. She won because she almost won the popular vote in 2008 Primary, because she was Secretary of State and is the best of a very weak bench for the Democrats.

Out of the 5 you mentioned only two of them had any chance- Biden and Warren. Biden didn't run because he frankly left it too long to build up Donors or a campaign team, and Warren had the Sanders campaign offered to her with the Draft Warren Movement.

But come on- Schweitzer! The guy who called a Democrat Senator a prostitute was never going to get the nomination- not in 2016, or even 1976.

 

[Figueira]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Yeah, screw democracy!

[Shadows]

Suggestions -

1 - Abolish all Supers

2 - Have 12 debates before Iowa

3 - Allow early voting in all causes & primaries to allow many old people to vote

4 - Reform Caucuses to allow people to vote throughout the day or incentive states to shift to primaries

5 - Abolish Super Tuesday which are tremendous disadvantage for insurgents - No more than 5 states can go to polls on the same day

6 - Allow 17 year old people eligible to vote in GE to vote in every state

7 - Open Primaries or Semi-Open Primary everywhere to allow Independents to vote

8 - Same Day Registration everywhere

(While I understand the over-representation of Southern states where Dems would never win in the near future is a valid concern, it can't be diminished largely suddenly. You don't change representation only if they are not voting for you. You try n reach out to them. You can't write off states - You need a 50 state strategy on the long term!

If Dems cut representation, they will lose Gov, Senate, Congress & many other races as people will be thinking they have cut down on the state, don't support the state, are discriminating against & don't care about that state)

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Yeah, screw democracy!

Considering about 45% of the country is about to vote for a literal fascist and racist who opposes the first amendment, I think it's a pretty valid statement.

[Figueira]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Yeah, screw democracy!

Considering about 45% of the country is about to vote for a literal fascist and racist who opposes the first amendment, I think it's a pretty valid statement.

Trump won the primaries because he had a plurality of the vote in the primaries. He wouldn't have won without our undemocratic FPTP system. Yes, the party got behind him later, but that includes people like Paul Ryan, Rob Portman, Marco Rubio, John McCain, Chris Christie, Ted Cruz, and others who would undoubtedly be "superdelegates" in your ideal world. Anyway, even if Trump was supported by a majority of voters, the idea that you can simply get rid of political views you don't like by preventing them from voting is cute. Maybe the PRC can get away with it, but they're an authoritarian dystopia that isn't what we want to emulate here, as much as many American political hacks would like to.

Anyway, I'll go through step-by-step everything wrong with your plan in a second.

[Figueira]

1. I would go further by getting rid of caucuses altogether (normal, not a Sanders hack), but this would be a step in the right direction I suppose.
2. I'm not sure what "no-excuse" means, but I strongly support absentee balloting and early voting.
3. I would eliminate superdelegates entirely. I'm not sure I like this compromise; I think politicians should be able to endorse whenever they want.
4. Sounds good.
5. I think party registration is kind of pointless in the US with our current system, and should be abolished, but this doesn't seem too bad in states that already have closed or semi-closed primaries. I'm not sure I like the affidavit thing just because "general principles" is hard to define, and it's unenforceable anyway.
6. TERRIBLE idea. I would just get rid of the delegate system, but blaming Democratic primary voters in Mississippi for the fact that most people in their state are Republican is absurd.
7. Whatever. I'd just have all the primaries on the same day.
8. Sure, I guess.

So overall, not as bad as I remembered. Aside from 6 (which is one of the worst ideas I've heard) and to some extent 5, this would be an improvement over the current system, although I'd still go a lot further ideally.