Several states' decisions to eliminate their 2004 presidential primaries are doing voters a disservice and hurting an already suspect system.
The governments of Kansas, Colorado, Maine and a number of other states decided to abolish their primaries, opting either for caucuses or eliminating the selection process altogether. Other states, including Washington and Missouri have moved to eliminate their primaries, only to see the motions defeated.
Primaries are held in the early months of an election year as a popular election for members of a challenging party (Democrats this year) to choose the best candidate for their party. Caucuses are smaller meetings where various members of the party discuss the candidates and choose individually. Both selections by primaries and caucuses act as recommendations to state delegates sent to the party's national convention. Caucuses draw far fewer people than primaries. Missouri drew 745,000 voters to its Democratic primary in 2000, while a 1996 caucus brought only about 20,000.
The reasoning provided by state government officials in favor of eliminating their respective primaries is that some of them take place too late in the campaign season. Because of the current structure, the media and voters effectively decide a favorite candidate by early March through the Iowa caucus, primaries in South Carolina and New Hampshire and Super Tuesday, in which 11 primaries take place on one day. These officials claim eliminating their primary could save the states roughly $7 million. Many of the primaries eliminated or replaced by caucuses are in typically conservative mid-western states.
The argument to eliminate a primary based on it saving the state $7 million is absurd. While this is a tremendous amount of money to the everyday Joe reading the number in the morning paper, in terms of state government it is a tiny sum. The budget for even a smaller state like Ohio is over $25 billion. To eliminate an outlet for voters to be heard on the basis of it saving a state such a relatively small amount of money is insulting -
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