On July 16, FairVote's Chris Pearson attended a meeting of the Democratic
National Committee’s (DNC) Commission on
Presidential Nomination Timing and Scheduling to discuss
possible reforms to the presidential nomination system. Currently, candidates concentrate time and money on the states with the
earliest primaries, excluding the great majority of the country from
the nomination process. In an attempt to undo this imbalance,
many states have moved their primaries earlier and earlier. Most
recently, New Jersey has shifted to late February. In 2000, the Republican Party examined its own nomination process, nearly adopting the “Delaware Plan.” This plan would set up a calendar with month-long gaps between primaries, and with each successive primary date including states with bigger populations.
FairVote's recommended proposal is the “American Plan” recently endorsed by the California Young Democrats. This plan combines random order with increasing population size and succeeds in balancing the interests of both large and small states, giving all states a fair shot at meaningful impact in the nomination process.
[Read more about New Jersey's primary change]
[The American Plan]
The International Olympic Committee chose London as the host city for the 2012 Games of the XXX Olympiad after four rounds of voting using a method similar to IRV. London won a majority in the highly contested, high publicity contest with 54 votes. The four-round runoff system was key to the London win, as it did not receive a majority of votes on the first counting. In later rounds, the city picked up a number of second and third choices from the eliminated cities of New York, Moscow, and Madrid.