I was thinking about elections in the United States today. I know that the Presidential election is actually defined ... I think it's by law but it might be even defined in the Constitution that it be the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. It's not a bad time of the year but it can be cold, rainy, stormy, even snowy in various parts of the country. There probably isn't a better time of the year to have it.

However, the PRIMARIES are another story. I don't mind that the primaries begin in January or how people complain so much about how long the primary season is but I do have a couple of suggestions and a proposal for, in my opinion, making the scheduling a little better. In the text below, I am going to use "primary" to mean "primary, caucus or any other method(s) of choosing a candidate for a particular party".

1. The 1st primary cannot occur before January 15th. This allows two weeks between the holidays and when people vote. This also lessens the load of commercials during the holiday break when nobody is thinking about politics except the candidates.
2. I think the country should be subdivided into zones. These zones can be defined in various arbitrary ways.
3. The primary season should be defined as January 15th thru May 15th. Four months should be enough to schedule everything. If things are decided by May 15th, that gives plenty of time to raise money and prepare for the conventions (which should be scheduled earlier in August to allow for them to occur and people have a more peaceful, less intense Labor Day holiday).
4. To deal with the Iowa/NH/SouthCarolina/Nevada problem ... based on these zones that get defined ... one state ... ideally one of the states mentioned earlier in this line item ... will "go first" from each zone. These "one states" would be set by the parties, should be varied somewhat, and can be scheduled in January to reflect whatever values the parties want. For example, if the Dems want to have "representative" states which have rich POC elements, they might schedule SoCarolina, Nevada, Michigan, etc. If the Repubs want large states first, let 'em go for it.
5. These zones should rotate in order. First one year goes to last and the others move up one slot.
6. One zone every one-two weeks which will allow plenty of time for geographical focus.

For example,
Zone 1: Northeast: ME, NH (unless NH "goes first"), VT, MA, RI
Zone 2: Mid-Atlantic1: CT, NY, NJ, PA, DE
Zone 3: Mid-Atlantic2: MD, DC, VA, WV
Zone 4: South1: NC, SC, GA, FL
Zone 5: South2: MS, AL, LA, TN
Zone 6: OH, MI, IN, KY
Zone 7: IL, WI, MN, Iowa
Zone 8: MO, AR, KS, NE, ND, SD
Zone 9: TX, OK
Zone 10: AZ, UT, CO, NM, WY, MT
Zone 11: WA, OR, ID, AK
Zone 12: CA, NV, HI
Zone 13: Others (PR, Guam, Abroad, etc.)

just an idea ...