Is it time for Democrats to have some winner take all primaries?

[bluestateguy]

It's too late for this year, but it might be something to think about for 2012. Winner take all primaries help to winnow the field and decrease the likelihood of a deadlocked race, or a brokered convention. I would never argue that New Hampshire or the Iowa caucus should be winner take all, nor should any of the big states allocate delegates this way, but I think the party may want to have some small or mid-sized state contests be winner take all for 2012 or 2016.

[davidinalameda]

1. no

that disenfranchises people

[saltpoint]

2. I think the Party should give all its delegates to the candidate of my

personal choosing.

That seems fair.

[maddiejoan]

3. Why not?

Obama is going to turn us into the Republican Party as it is.

[enki23]

4. hell no. though they should ditch the superdelegates in a fucking hurry

.

[IndieLeft]

5. NO!

You win a percentage of the vote, you should win a percentage of delegates.

[Sir Jeffrey]

6. I think they should tweak the proportionality...

to better reflect when a candidate destroys the opposition. I think the system should harshly punish those candidates that get beat soundly in a state, whether it is Obama in Arkansas or Clinton in Illinois. The "keep it above 40" goal is arbitrary under the current system.

I don't like winner take all contests because it would create gross disparity when you have something like what just happened in MO. Why should Obama get all of the delegates in MO when he won by around 10,000 votes (1% of the vote)? Why should Hillary get all of the delegates in New Mexico if the margin for her stays around 1000 votes (1% of the vote)? In those circumstances the delegates should split in substantially equal numbers to reflect the vote totals.

However, if someone gets trounced by 35 points, they should only get a token number of the delegates IMO. You shouldn't get a significant number just for showing up.

I think changing the way the party awards delegates to better reflect, um, ass-whoopin's, would help narrow the field quicker.