Suggestion for changes in primary/caucus order for 2020.

[Ken Burch]

Iowa and NH stay where they are.

West Coast, AK and NV primaries a week later(switching AK, WA and NV from caucuses to primaries)

Then SC, DC, and GA as "Rainbow Tuesday".

Then NY and Texas.

Then the rest.

All regions and demographics getting a real say, large states mattering as much as small, the wishes of loyal Dem states counting as much as the freaking "swing states".

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Good luck with that.

States determine their own election procedures. You'd have to persuade each state's legislature, as well as its political parties, to change the dates or anything else about the process.

[Ken Burch]

2. Logically, the West Coast states would want more influence on the nomination.

As would NY and DC.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. If a big state like California or New York went first,

that would effectively freeze out candidates with less money or name recognition because they could not afford to campaign on that scale. Bernie would not have had a chance in those states at this stage of the campaign. The big states have probably agreed within their party structures not to move their primaries to earlier dates for exactly that reason - to give all the candidates a chance to do their sales pitches in smaller states and do some initial weeding out. Iowa gave Bernie momentum, and weeded out O'Malley (unfortunately) and Huckabee (fortunately), and probably Jeb! When the number of candidates has been winnowed down and the remaining ones have had a chance to do serious fund-raising and get their names in the media, then they can afford to move on to the bigger states.

[JI7]

3. people complain during primary time but won't do anything about it after that

As always happens

[wildeyed]

5. "Rainbow Tuesday"

WTF does that mean? We have a special day for the majority black states to vote? Tell me I misunderstood.

We should do away with primaries completely. We run ALL the candidates at once. Voters mark their top three choices in order and they are tallied using the Instant Runoff Voting format.

Yields more accurate results, cheaper, gives third party a chance and EVERYONE gets to decide. I f'ing hate the way that a few states at the beginning pretty much tell the rest of us who the nominee is, and it drags the process on way too long. Parties will never let it happen since it really decreases their power too. Bt for all you revolutionaries, IRV is the best way ever to screw with the party machine.

[Ken Burch]

6. The idea is that there should be a specific point in the process

where AA voters get a real say in the Democratic nomination process...NOT that that would be the only time when AA people would be allowed to vote at all(it would also mean that the votes of people in DC would finally matter in national politics).

Far better than the Super Tuesday arrangement, which gives white Southerners a degree of influence in the selection of our nominee that they totally don't deserve, since white Southerners will never give majority support to the Democratic Party again, no matter how reactionary(which is what "moderate" actually means in a Dem context)our presidential and congressional candidates get.