Reply #28: Worked up these suggestions for reform on another

[DistressedAmerican]

thread. I think these six suggestions allow for reform of a badly disfunctional nominating process. While at the same time dealing with many if not all of the criticisms raised above.

Six Suggestions For Structural Change in the Presidential Nominating Process

1) The nation be divided into 5 broad geographic regions (Southeast, Southwest, Northeast, Midwest, Northwest)
2) Each region chooses, through a set system of rotation or by other criteria, one state to run in a first day primary
3) 3 weeks later, the people and campaigns have had a chance to respond to the first day results, all remaining states vote, "Super Tuesday".
4) Ballots should be in the form of "Ranked balloting". Rate the candidates in order of preference.
5) Proportional distribution of delegates. Death to "Winner Takes All" apportionment of delegates. That way, a second, or third in large states still has value.
6) Finally, public financing of all campaigns to establish a level funding playing field. Each candidate would receive a set amount of money to spend on the primary race.

Most importantly it maintains a staged primary system, allows for the populist candidates to accumulate some support and money, keeps any states from always having the say in the wildly influential first primary, and would likely select a candidate more representative of the entire country.

Comments?