A Stitch in Haste

On top of several other states, including California, moving their primary dates early, to a new "Super-Duper Tuesday" on February 5, 2008, Florida has now leapfrogged even that date:

In the months since California moved its presidential primary to Feb. 5 from June, the major presidential campaigns have sought to measure how the early nominating contests being held here and in about 20 other states that day will shape their tactical calculations: where to travel, whom to hire, how to spend money.
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Just this week, Florida voted to move its primary up to Jan. 29 in an effort to ensure that it would play a vital role in the nominating process and that the candidates would pay attention to the issues its residents deem important.
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But its sheer size, its concentrations of both liberals and conservatives, its status as a money tree for candidates and its role as fertile ground for policy innovation make California especially likely to wield additional clout this time around.

Primaries are of course not the general election, but I find is fascinating — and frustrating — that these states, particularly large states such as California and Florida, are so eager to play Chinese Checkers with the primary calendar to "wield additional clout," yet still totally ignore the idea of switching to the District Method of allocating electoral votes, which would earn these states even more clout than this "primary hopscotch."

To review: The all-or-nothing system of awarding all a state's Electoral College votes to whichever candidate wins the statewide vote is not a constitutional mandate. The District Method simply awards each Congressional District's one vote to the popular winner in that District, and then awards the two "Senate" electoral votes to the statewide winner. Maine and Nebraska use the District Method, though neither state has actually ever split their Electoral College vote.

But Maine and Nebraska are small, relatively homogeneous states. Large, diverse states such as California, New York and Florida would certainly split their votes. States now "written off" by one party or the other would suddenly become contested, as candidates strive to win contested Congressional Districts.

If a state wants a candidate to acknowledge its existence, then the best way is of course to have something the candidate wants. And there is nothing a presidential nominee wants more than electoral votes. Adopting the District Method would not only eliminate the flaws of the all-or-nothing system without the chaos that a pure popular vote would generate, but it would make more states more important.

The District Method continues to get my vote, every day of the calendar.