Voting needs revamping

There were eight of them heading into the Jan. 19 Iowa caucus, but by Feb. 14 the count dwindled to five.

Thirty-two states have yet to hold their primaries, but already John Kerry stands out as the clear favorite for the Democratic nomination.

Is it time to update the primary process so the crux of the nomination doesn’t rely solely on candidates winning a few states early in the game?

In an effort to democratize the process, a few states end up deciding which candidates drop out of the race and which hold on, pumping more money from constituents to even remain standing.

Howard Dean has experience with this.

The Democratic candidate from Vermont vowed he would keep at it even if he lost Wisconsin because of the continued support of voters.

Deemed tough competition early on, Dean is now considered a long shot and is looking for ways to continue financing his campaign and be portrayed as a Washington outsider.

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark dropped out on Feb. 11 after losing Virginia and Tennessee.

Others like Dick Gephardt and Joe Lieberman did not last a full month.

If Kerry wins his party’s nomination will it have been because of his qualifications over other candidates or voters choosing based on who’s left standing or who gets plugged as being a shoe-in for convention – a safe vote against Bush?

Aside from Democrats focusing on ousting Bush from office, a focus should be put on finding a candidate that can best run the country.

The primary system limits most voters’ choices considerably.

The current process makes a lot of sense if you’re a candidate traveling by horse and carriage and there is no other way to get your campaign issues out there unless you go state to state.

Now it would be quite feasible to have a national primary and get the message out to the whole country at once and do away with month by month primaries.

Many Americans are used to hearing nothing more than a few sound bites for the candidate they end up voting for.

If a more centralized approach is taken more time might be spent with media coverage of candidate platforms and each state would have equal influence over the nomination.

The United States has the longest election process in the world, but that does not make it the most efficient or the most democratic.

California used to hold its primary in June. Realizing this placed the Golden State in a position of almost non-existent influence, it was bumped up to March.

But as this primary season shows, major changes have occurred well before California voters have a chance to punch, click or otherwise vote on the candidate they want to see run against President Bush for the 2004 election.

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