Could a meaningful, functional primary election system be on the way? Long-murmured attempts to move the primaries earlier in the year are now out in the open. From the Free Press:
A contested primary raises concerns that once a single candidate is chosen, there is little time or money left to wage a campaign against the candidate of the opposing party.
Shumlin, leader of the Senate, said in a meeting of Senate Democrats this week, “Let’s get the bill out.”
Predictably, the Republicans are lining up against it, as a dysfunctional primary system benefits incumbents – like Jim Douglas – at the expense of giving opponents a fair shot and voters a fair choice. It’s so painful:
“I just frankly am not at all in favor of lengthening the time, the pain, the cost,” Sen. Randy Brock, R-Franklin, said of the election season.
It’s so weird:
The August date also drew discussion. “It’s a weird time to have an election,” said Sen. William Doyle, R-Washington.
August seems woefully inadequate, though. Talk about a half-solution. Clearly, to allow two complete election processes (which the primary and general elections should be in order to avoid short-circuiting democracy) the primary should move to June (or at the very least July), unfortunately…
The committee considered a June primary, but committee Chairman Jeanette White, D-Windham, said that would force candidates, including those for the Legislature, to file petitions in April, before the legislative session is over and before they’re ready to make a decision on running.
Arg. Oh well… I suppose the glass is half full.
…is the notion of a politician being undecided in April about running for office later that year. How well did that work out for Gaye Symington? In this day and age, for better or worse, candidates need to start a whole lot earlier than that.
I’m also waiting for the argument about holding an election during summer vacation season. To which my reply is, let’s make advance voting as simple as possible. Indeed, let’s allow voting over an extended period of time. like Oregon’s mail-only voting system. How much could we boost participation with a system like that?
because, when summer finally arrives in Vermont, the public tends to be more disengaged from public issues than ever, as they try to “make hay while the sun shines.”
but then it should be as early as possible in summer (June or even May) while less people are away on vacation.
The legislature isn’t going to move the primary to early summer for the simple reason that they don’t want to have to start their own campaigns until September. This has long been the main obstacle to a more reasonable primary date.
At this point, an August primary does have some traction. Is this an improvement over the current schedule? I think – mostly – yes. Turnout is miserable in primaries anyway, and even a few more weeks between the primary and the general would be helpful.
Many town clerks are starting to advocate abolishing the primaries or pushing the responsibility back onto the parties in some form. Now that brings up all sorts of issues…my own thought is that perhaps a mail-only primary (but still state-run) is the way to go.