Coordinated State Legislation

The National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) has considered the problem for several years. In February 1999 the NASS endorsed a system of rotating regional primaries. (Washington Post 1999) However, the NASS is a voluntary, consultative body rather than a formal institution, thus it lacks the legal authority to construct and operate a national primary system. Moreover, while state departments of state administer primary elections in some cases, many states have election boards that are independent of the secretary of state. Also, a number of states elect delegates to national political conventions via caucuses or state party conventions, entirely removing state governments from the process.

The coordinated implementation of a national primary system by 50 states and five territories, commonwealths, and districts constitutes a formidable collective action problem. This approach would require the unanimous adoption of the system by these 55 entities. Since nearly all of these jurisdictions have bicameral legislatures, this implementation approach entails the passage of the same bill by over one hundred legislative chambers and the signatures of 55 governors. A few holdouts would be sufficient to scuttle the project, or in the unlikely event of initial unanimity, a small number of defectors would threaten the integrity of the entire system, just as the breakdown of the traditional system began with the independent actions of a few states advancing their primary schedules.

However, in the event that an effort is mounted via this mechanism, a model state bill (base on model legislation adopted by the NASS [NASS 2000]) for implementing the Mod 2A schedule of the Graduated Random Presidential Primary System is provided in Appendix 4.