PRIMARY DECEPTION

The primary elections have morphed into primary chaos and confusion. Let us count the ways: delegates and super delegates; candidates winning delegates in Colorado without any election, Bernie Sanders winning 7 straight primaries, yet way behind in delegate votes to Hillary Clinton; elections running from January to June. How did it come to this?

The reason is as simple as the primary process is complicated. The current primary system allows for manipulation and deal making by elites of both Parties. (We don't like the candidate that is the leading vote getter, so we'll just play it fast and loose with state delegates).

What we need is a complete overhaul of the primary election process. Put the power back into the hands of the citizens instead of Party bosses.

First, let's stop spreading the primaries over a 6 month period, from January to June. If we can elect a president on one designated polling day, then we can certainly do the same for selecting the candidates to run for that office. It would obviously save time, as well as saving an abundance of money.

Second, let the candidates be chosen by popular vote, rather than by delegates. That change would once again give full power to the citizens of this country.

The current primary system is a remnant of a past age, when travel and the dissemination of information was severely limited and painfully slow. We are now in the 21st century--the era of jets, superhighways, the internet and cable and satellite TV. The day of the backroom political deal and delegate shuffling should go the way of the telegraph and horse and buggy. What should be primary is the will of the people.