Reply #26: All primaries on one day is a TERRIBLE idea! [View All]

[DemBones DemBones]

Unless all the candidates could afford to actively campaign in each of the 50 states for a week or more, which would mean a full year of campaigning (two weeks off, which is all many Americans get off each year (but they don't spend the other fifty weeks away from home, traveling to several cities on most days.) And who would run under those circumstances?

Making all election and primary days holidays is a good idea, of course, but businesses would complain loudly -- and people would bitch about a holiday with the bars closed. (Are the bars still closed everywhere on election day?)
It should still be done, though, but I wouldn't count on it increasing turnout much. A lot of people just don't vote because they figure it doesn't matter, and won't vote unless they decide it does matter.

It's always frustrating not getting to vote until late in the primary season, but I'll be voting for Dennis on March 2, too. (Tell him that for me, Will, please!)

The upside of voting later is seeing more of how the candidates "wear" during the season, how they deal with victory or defeat in the earlier primary states, whether they stay true to their original message, whether any scandals erupt (or whether the opposition party tries to smear them with a bogus one, as we have just seen them try with Kerry.) It matters how a person handles a revelation of something that they'd hoped wouldn't be revealed or how they handle an attempted smear.