II

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION S. 1589

To provide for a rotating schedule for regional primaries for Presidential

elections, and for other purposes.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MARCH 5, 1996

Mr. GORTON (for himself and Mr. LIEBERMAN) introduced the following bill;

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Rules and Administration

A BILL

To provide for a rotating schedule for regional primaries

for Presidential elections, and for other purposes.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Presidential Primary

5 Act of 1996’’.

6 SEC. 2. DEFINITION.

7 For purposes of this Act—

8 (1) the term ‘‘election year’’ means a year dur9 ing which a Presidential election is to be held;
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1 (2) the term ‘‘national committee’’ means the

2 organization which, by virtue of the bylaws of a po3 litical party, is responsible for the day-to-day oper4 ation of such political party at the national level, as

5 determined by the Federal Election Commission;

6 (3) the term ‘‘political party’’ means an associa7 tion, committee, or organization which—

8 (A) nominates a candidate for election to

9 any Federal office whose name appears on the

10 election ballot as the candidate of such associa11 tion, committee, or organization; and

12 (B) won electoral votes in the preceding

13 Presidential election;

14 (4) the term ‘‘primary’’ means a primary elec15 tion held for the selection of delegates to a national

16 Presidential nominating convention of a political

17 party, but does not include a caucus, convention, or

18 other indirect means of selection; and

19 (5) the term ‘‘State committee’’ means the or20 ganization which, by virtue of the bylaws of a politi21 cal party, is responsible for the day-to-day operation

22 of such political party at the State level, as deter23 mined by the Federal Election Commission.

24 SEC. 3. SCHEDULE.

25 (a) SCHEDULE.—
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1 (1) FIRST ELECTION CYCLE.—In the first elec2 tion year after the date of enactment of this Act,

3 each State shall hold a primary in accordance with

4 this Act, according to the following schedule:

5 (A) REGION I.—Each State in Region I

6 shall hold its primary on the first Tuesday in

7 March.

8 (B) REGION II.—Each State in Region II

9 shall hold its primary on the first Tuesday in

10 April.

11 (C) REGION III.—Each State in Region III

12 shall hold its primary on the first Tuesday in

13 May.

14 (D) REGION IV.—Each State in Region IV

15 shall hold its primary on the first Tuesday in

16 June.

17 (2) SUBSEQUENT ELECTION CYCLES.—

18 (A) GENERAL RULE.—Except as provided

19 in subparagraph (B), in the second and each

20 subsequent election year after the date of enact21 ment of this Act, each State in each region

22 shall hold its primary on the first Tuesday of

23 the month following the month in which it held

24 its primary in the preceding election year.
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1 (B) LIMITATION.—If the States in a re2 gion were required to hold their primaries not

3 earlier than the first Tuesday in June of the

4 preceding year, such States shall hold their pri5 maries on the first Tuesday in March of the

6 succeeding election year.

7 (b) REGIONS.—For purposes of subsection (a):

8 (1) REGION I.—Region I shall be comprised of

9 the following:

10 (A) Connecticut.

11 (B) Delaware.

12 (C) District of Columbia.

13 (D) Maine.

14 (E) Maryland.

15 (F) Massachusetts.

16 (G) New Hampshire.

17 (H) New Jersey.

18 (I) New York.

19 (J) Pennsylvania.

20 (K) Rhode Island.

21 (L) Vermont.

22 (M) West Virginia.

23 (2) REGION II.—Region II shall be comprised of

24 the following:

25 (A) Alabama.
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1 (B) Arkansas.

2 (C) Florida.

3 (D) Georgia.

4 (E) Kentucky.

5 (F) Louisiana.

6 (G) Mississippi.

7 (H) North Carolina.

8 (I) Oklahoma.

9 (J) South Carolina.

10 (K) Tennessee.

11 (L) Texas.

12 (M) Virginia.

13 (3) REGION III.—Region III shall be comprised

14 of the following:

15 (A) Illinois.

16 (B) Indiana.

17 (C) Iowa.

18 (D) Kansas.

19 (E) Michigan.

20 (F) Minnesota.

21 (G) Missouri.

22 (H) Nebraska.

23 (I) North Dakota.

24 (J) Ohio.

25 (K) South Dakota.
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1 (L) Wisconsin.

2 (4) REGION IV.—Region IV shall be comprised

3 of the following:

4 (A) Alaska.

5 (B) Arizona.

6 (C) California.

7 (D) Colorado.

8 (E) Hawaii.

9 (F) Idaho.

10 (G) Montana.

11 (H) Nevada.

12 (I) New Mexico.

13 (J) Oregon.

14 (K) Utah.

15 (L) Washington.

16 (M) Wyoming.

17 (5) TERRITORIES.—The national committees

18 shall jointly determine the region of each territory of

19 the United States.

20 SEC. 4. QUALIFICATION FOR BALLOT.

21 (a) CERTIFICATION BY FEDERAL ELECTION COMMIS22 SION.—The Federal Election Commission shall certify to

23 the States in the relevant region the names of all seriously

24 considered candidates of each party—
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1 (1) for the first primary in the election year,

2 not later than 6 weeks before such primary; and

3 (2) in the subsequent primaries in the election

4 year, not later than 1 week after the preceding pri5 mary in that election year.

6 (b) STATE PRIMARY BALLOTS.—Each State shall in7 clude on its primary ballot—

8 (1) the names certified by the Federal Election

9 Commission; and

10 (2) any other names determined by the appro11 priate State committee.

12 SEC. 5. VOTING AT NATIONAL PARTY CONVENTIONS BY

13 STATE DELEGATES.

14 (a) IN GENERAL.—Each State committee shall estab15 lish a procedure for the apportionment of delegates to the

16 national Presidential nominating convention of each politi17 cal party based on 1 of the following models:

18 (1) WINNER-TAKE-ALL.—A binding, winner19 take-all system in which the results of the primary

20 bind each member of the State delegation or Con21 gressional district delegation (or combination there22 of) to the national convention to cast his or her vote

23 for the primary winner in the State.

24 (2) PROPORTIONATE PREFERENCE.—A binding

25 proportionate representation system in which the re-
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1 sults of the State primary are used to allocate mem2 bers of the State delegation or Congressional district

3 delegation (or combination thereof) to the national

4 convention to Presidential candidates based on the

5 proportion of the vote for some or all of the can6 didates received in the primary in the State.

7 (b) SELECTION OF DELEGATES.—

8 (1) SUBMISSION OF NAMES.—Not later than

9 the date on which a candidate is certified on the bal10 lot for a State, such candidate shall submit to the

11 State committee, in priority order, a list of names of

12 individuals proposed by the candidate to serve as

13 delegates for such candidate.

14 (2) SELECTION.—Delegates apportioned to rep15 resent a candidate pursuant to the procedure estab16 lished under subsection (a) shall be selected accord17 ing to the list submitted by the candidate pursuant

18 to paragraph (1).

19 (c) VOTING AT THE NATIONAL CONVENTIONS.—

20 Each delegate to a national convention who is required

21 to vote for the winner of the State primary under the sys22 tem established under subsection (a) shall so vote for at

23 least 2 ballots at the national convention, unless released

24 by the winner of the State primary to which such dele25 gate’s vote is pledged.
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1 SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE.

2 This Act shall apply to the primaries in the year 2000

3 and in each election year thereafter.

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