The Democratic Party of California formally endorsed a plan aimed at
more voters having influence in the choice of their party's
presidential candidate. The American Plan, which was the only
alternaitve explicitly mentioned in the DNC's Commission on
Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling 2005 report, has been
steadily gathering enthusiasm in California where grassroots supporters
have been attracting attention to the plan one county committee after
another. The state party's decision to back the plan is the first state
party to take this bold step, though the Young Democrats of America
endorsed the American Plan in 2005.Unlike our current front-loaded primary schedule, the American Plan combines random order with increasing state size to yield a schedule that gives many more people the chance to play a meaningful role in choosing presidential nominees. FairVote was the first national organization to endorse the plan and has helped boost it with writing and outreach.
[ About American Plan ]
[ FairVote oped in the Manchester Times Union ]
In
the national legislative election held on January 25th, Hamas won 76 of
132 seats, or 58%, compared to 43 seats, or 33%, for the governing
Fatah party. Palestine used a parallel system, electing 66 of 132
seats in multimember districts and 66 on a national list basis. Hamas won 30 of
the national list seats, or 45%, while Fatah won 27, or 41%.