Subject: [EL] a good idea from Kentucky
From: Richard Winger
Date: 2/5/2011, 11:01 AM
To: "election-law@mailman.lls.edu" <election-law@mailman.lls.edu>
Reply-to:
"richardwinger@yahoo.com"

Last month, the Kentucky State Senate passed SB 4, which moves the presidential primary from May to the first week in August.

100 years ago, when presidential primaries were first introduced, the major party national conventions were in June.  In 1912, the Democrats met June 25-29 and the Republicans met June 18-22.  In 1916, the Democrats met June 14-16 and the Republicans met June 7-10.

So, the first presidential primaries were all held in March, April, May and June.  The 1912 presidential primaries ran from March 19 to June 4, and the 1916 presidential primaries ran from March 7 to June 6.

If it made sense 100 years ago to have all the presidential primaries in the four months immediately preceding the national conventions, why doesn't it make sense nowadays to have all the presidential primaries in the four months immediately before the national conventions?  If we did that, all the presidential primaries would be in late May, June, July and August.  In 2012 the Democratic convention will start September 4 and the Republican convention will be in the last week of August.

So, I commend the Kentucky Senate, and I wish the Democratic and Republican national committees would eliminate their rules that require all presidential primaries to be held by the first week in June.  If states held their presidential primaries in May, June, July and August, they could combine the presidential primary with the congressional/state office primary, and save a lot of money (currently half the states pay for a presidential primary in the spring and then a separate later primary for congress and state office).  Turnout would be higher and voter fatigue would be lessened.