Regional Presidential Primaries and Mobile Voting

Reforming how political parties select their Presidential nominees

There are many similarities between politics and college/professional sports. I like sports and I especially like the NFL Playoffs and College Basketball March Madness. When comparing the methods parties use to select their Presidential nominees with how professional/college sports crowned their champions, there is no contest (excuse the pun). Professional/College sports leagues do it better. Many popular reality TV shows (American Idol, The Bachelor, Survivor, etc.) also use multiple elimination rounds to decide on their ultimate champion.

Something to remember ... Political parties are private gain-seeking organizations. State and local governments should neither fund or run primaries for political parties.

Looking through the lens of self-interest, it is in a political party's self interest to create a fair, standardized, transparent, secure, and exciting (buzz, earned media, FOMO) process to select their Presidential nominee.

Voters, especially younger voters, will like this new way of selecting party nominees.

My vision for Presidential primaries ...

• Parties should select their Presidential nominees through party run primaries. The Regional Primaries would be run between January and May, with four weeks between each regional primary. The order of the primaries would be selected by lot.

• The party run primaries would be open to all registered voters. Parties currently have access to registered voter data.

• The preferred method of voting would be through a secure mobile voting app. The technology is already here. The technology will be more mature and accepted by 2028. If a voter doesn't want to use the mobile app, mail-in and in-person voting methods will also be available, although in-person voting would be limited. Perhaps one in-person voting location in each Congressional District. In-person voting would be run by the party, not the government.

• Scoring

  • States will allocate delegates by their electoral college votes (x 10). No winner takes all states. After the state votes are tabulated, candidates will receive a proportion of the delegates based on the number of votes they receive. Proportional Ranked Choice Voting could also be used.

• Vision

  • Likely outcomes of the new system. Many candidates will likely throw their hats into the ring. At the beginning of the process, no one can predict, with any degree of certainty, who will win. Even long shot candidates have a chance of winning. Kind of like the 64th seed in the NCAA Basketball Championship tournament.

  • Four, unrepresentative states (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina) will no longer have outsized importance. Every voter in every state can say that their vote mattered.

  • Because there will be no "winner takes all" states and the votes will be allocated proportionally, several candidates will most likely remain viable into the last regional primary. Using the March Madness analogy, the primary field could start with 32 candidates and dwindle to 16, then 8, and finally to 4 in the last region.

  • Money and name recognition will be important, but it will not be as important as it is under the current primary system. Any candidate has a shot to win. Money and special interest groups can no longer put all of their chips on one candidate. Local media and local new media will play bigger roles than under the old system.

  • If, for example, the Democratic Party decides to implement this system, and the Republican Party decides to use the current system, the Democrat’s Presidential Primary contest will be all over the news and internet for months. It will be exciting, with multiple storylines, interesting policy ideas, etc.

  • In the end, the ultimate nominee will be fully "battle tested," and more competitive in the general election.

  • Hopefully, this new system will produce better nominees and restore the public's trust in the way voters select Presidential nominees.

I would like to publish a version of this idea in an OP-ED. I would love to partner with someone. Also, please let me know if you have contacts within the two major parties who might be interested in this idea.

I welcome your questions and comments.

Thanks,

Mike Cantwell