the primary and election seasons are absurd and they interfere with the operation of the country. a president basically only serves 2.5 years now before all attention is paid to the next election.
also this nonsense of states holding primaries over the course of months is silly. voters are constantly influence by what is happening in other states. everyone should get to make their case and then vote on the same day. and in the internet age, where every candidates position is on the internet, we should be campaigning less, not more!!!!!! do i really need CNN to follow Hillary from Cali to Arizona to Michigan to New Hampshire so i can hear the same speech 4 times?????
i would propose this:
July: Everyone who wants to run says so. party leaders (let's say a group of 100 or so, chosen by some means), rank the candidates by their preference from most preferred to least preferred. The top 4 most preferred run in the primary. They have 2 months to make their case to the people, which gives them enough time to visit every state.
September 1: Primary day. all 50 states + territories vote. Proportional delegates with "automatic runoff" voting where voters can, if they want to, list their 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th most preferred candidate. The most preferred candidate is the nominee. No more superdelegates.
No more convention. They are just pep rallies. The candidate can give a speech wherever they choose to formally accept the nomination and/or name their VP. The parties can have air time to present their platforms in lieu of convention coverage but i would much rather see this done by the nominee and the party chairman alone on camera speaking candidly to the people rather than a convention hall.
mid September-October: Campaigning and debates.
November: election.
That's 4 months for the whole process.
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