We Need to Reclaim the Primary Process

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65. Impractical and/or unconstitutional

First, the "we" that you suggest should change the system to a national primary is the "85 percent" that don't get to vote before the first primaries. From that, it would appear that you are suggesting national legislation to force all presidential primaries to be held on the same date. Such legislation almost certainly would be unconstitutional, as would legislation requiring a state to hold a primary rather than a convention or a caucus. Trying to get each state to set its own primary date at the same date as every other state would be impossible from a practical matter. There always would be a renegade state or states that would set their date earlier. Among other things, primaries generate business and if all of the primaries are on the same date, some states -- particularly the smaller ones, will simply be ignored. So they're not going to go along with it. Many states would rather be later in the process so long as they aren't "competing" with other states for attention (i.e., candidates spending money, media spending for hotels and restaurants etc).

Second, expecting candidates to pledge that they won't pull out of the race until every state has voted is a pointless exercise. The reason candidates drop out is almost always because they don't have the money to continue in the race. What is the point of a candidate staying in the race if he or she has no money to pay staff, buy ads, etc etc.

I'm not saying that the current system makes a lot of sense. Just that it is going to change from within and it can't be forced to change by law.