Sen. Nelson: Create system of regional primaries, abolish Electoral College Muriel Kane

Published: Friday March 28, 2008



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Print This Email This Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) appeared on CNN to slam both the Democratic Party nominating process and the Electoral College. Nelson said he would like to abolish the Electoral College entirely, because "people are increasingly dissatisfied when you can have the most votes for president and the other candidate ... ends up being elected, as last happened in the year 2000." He is also proposing to do away with the current presidential nominating procedures in favor of six large regional primaries, which would be held between March and June of every presidential election year in an order to be determined by drawing lots. CBS's John Roberts did not comment on the merits of Nelson's proposal, but merely noted that "Iowa and New Hampshire are going to scream bloody murder." "Of course they're going to kick up and scream, "Nelson replied, "but those states are not representative of America as a whole and why should they have an outsized influence?" Nelson, a supporter of Hillary Clinton, also expressed frustration over the disenfranchisement of Florida and Michigan primary voters as a result of those states' violations of party guidelines. He sued the Democratic Party on behalf of his state last fall, but that suit was denied. Last month, he predicted a "train wreck" at the Democratic National Convention if the issue is not resolved. Nelson's latest suggestion is that the Florida delegates be seated but only counted as half a vote. This video is from CNN American Morning, broadcast March 28, 2008.



Transcript via closed captions :: 15 minutes after the hour on a friday morning. we're back with the most politics in the morning. is our current electoral system broken? our next guest says we need a complete overhall. his state, florida, has no part in this year's democratic primary process since they broke rules by holding its primary too early and was stripped of its delegates. joining me is democratic senator bill nelson. good morning to you. :: good morning. :: do you believe the system is broken and why do you think it is? :: if ever we've had had an example of a mess, it's this one. and i don't think there's anybody in america that is satisfied with this presidential nominating process. :: oh, i don't know. i think john mccain is pretty happy with it. :: well, i'm talking about on the democratic side. :: oh, okay. :: but when you get around to the november election, you know, people are increasingly dis dissatisfied when you can have the most votes for president and the other candidate who gets less votes in the country ends up being elected, as last happened in the year 2000. it's happened a few times in our history. so we ought to abillionish the electoral college well as well. :: let's take a look at your entire proposal here. first of all, in terms of choosing a nominee for the democratic primary, you're suggesting rotating regional primaries instead of the system we're going through right now. then in terms of electing a president, abol issue the electoral college to allow the president to be voted by popular vote and allow early voting. let's go back to the first point. how would the system of rotating primaries work? :: well, it replaces the primaries and caucuses that go now, and if it keeps going like it is, they keep jumping each other, the first one will be at halloween. so let's have a system of rational primaries that start in march and go through june of the presidential year. let's group up states according to lots drawing one through six where you have a combination of small states and big states all on one particular date, and let's do that six times from march june. and then you've got a little bit of order out of the chaos that we have now. :: so you know what's going to happen. iowa and new hampshire are going to scream bloody murder about this whole thing, particularly since, you know, every four years their economy gets a tremendous boost from the amount of advertising, the amount of money that comes into those two states because of these primaries. what do you say to iowa and new hampshire? :: of course they're going to kick up and scream. but those states are not representative of america as a whole. and why should they have an outsized influence into determining who's going to be the presidential nominee? so that's what senator levin of michigan and i are saying. let's combine small states, large states, drawn by lot, on the order of one through six, and let's give a more representative sampling of america to term who's going to be our nominee. :: senator, why is it so much worse this year than in others? and are you concerned that the democratic party could implode over this whole thing and basically you'll hand john mccain the general election? :: the answer is, because it's even steven. a nominee hadn't been determined early on like the gop with john mccain. as a result, you've got all of these party rules getting into the way of voters' rights. i'm speaking of michigan and florida. and there's no end in sight. we can't get a compromise. i've been trying since last summer to get the dnc to work it out so that they would not be denying the vote to almost two million florida democrats that came out and voted. and, yet, we are where we are because we can't get agreement between the candidates because each of the candidates feel that this offer of compromise is to their advantage or disadvantage, and the other one feels the other way. so we can't get agreement. :: your latest proposal for a compromise in the florida situation is to seat all of. delegates at the convention in denver in august and allow them a half a vote based on the results of the florida primary. but people say because you are a hillary clinton supporter, you can'ten an honest broker in any plan here. what do you say? :: well, somebody's got to solve this thing. i've talked to barack and hillary and the chairman howard dean about this. basically, you'd go back to what the dnc rules say, and they say if a state moves early, they're going to be penalized half their votes. that's what the republican rules said as well, and that's what the republicans did. so i'm saying, well, penalize florida half its votes and let's move on. and because at the end the day, john, if the democratic party disses and stiff-arms florida, how do you think floridaians are going to feel come the november election? :: you think they'll sit out? :: well, already we're seeing in the polls that 20% of independents in florida are saying they're less likely to vote for the nominee because of the way they've been treated. :: and we've also got polls that show that 16% of both barack obama and clinton supporters would sit out if their choice doesn't become the nominee. senator nelson, we'll put what you said to howard dean in an hour. thank gz for being with us. :: thanks. :: so we want to know what you think. we'll be asking this question all morning -- should the electoral college be scrapped in choosing a president? presidents elected by a national popular vote nationwide instead? yes or no, cast your vote at cnn.com

