# Do other countries have Iowa and NH system of picking their leader? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 27, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912 "2015-10-27T22:50:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/1 "2015-10-27T22:50:32Z")
What I mean is do any other countries get all hyped up about elections in 2 obscure parts of their country? Seems like the way the US system works is we put a lot of emphasis on game 1 of a 16 game season . I guess the good thing is that those of us not in Iowa and NH don’t get bombarded with political stuff way in advance. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/2 "2015-10-27T23:44:52Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > I guess the good thing is that those of us not in Iowa and NH don’t get bombarded with political stuff way in advance. Trust me, ALL of New England gets bombarded with political stuff, not just NH. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2015, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/3 "2015-10-27T23:49:46Z")
At a general election in the UK there are usually some critical marginals. These are seats where polls don’t give a definite indication of which way they will go and where the result might be decisive in out first past the post system. They usually get a load of attention from the main parties with visits from all the leaders and the attendant press. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/4 "2015-10-28T00:36:25Z")
other than sports I pretty much DVR shows so I can avoid all the politicians lying in their TV ads by skipping all ads. Also they tend to run a lot of political ads during the 6-7 PM news which I don’t watch. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/5 "2015-10-28T04:06:29Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > At a general election in the UK there are usually some critical marginals. These are seats where polls don’t give a definite indication of which way they will go and where the result might be decisive in out first past the post system. They usually get a load of attention from the main parties with visits from all the leaders and the attendant press. For those not in the US, the reason that Iowa and New Hampshire are important is not that they are necessarily so-called “swing states” in the general election. (They’re often contested, but they’re small and have leaned more strongly Democratic over the past 3–4 elections.) Rather, this is due to the first two party _primary elections_ (“primaries”) being held in these states. The primaries are a series of state-by-state elections, spread over the winter and spring preceding a presidential election, to determine who will get the nominations of the major parties. Imagine, for example, if in a Westminster-style system, there were a series of regional elections before each party convention (one election per region for each party), and the candidate who got the best results in these elections would get to be the leader of the party in the next general election. (It’s not a perfect analogy, but it will serve.) To the best of my knowledge, the party leadership elections are not actually done this way in any Westminster system, but I welcome corrections on this matter. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/6 "2015-10-28T04:26:16Z")
Are there other countries with First-past-the-post voting and also staggered voting? So people have both the incentive and the opportunity to back a winning candidate? Don’t know of any, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. In Aus, the really irritating thing about American Politics is that you generate so much free / low cost vision for so long, and the channels use it to fill up their “news” programs as if anyone here was actually interested. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/7 "2015-10-28T04:55:58Z")
Not in Canada. The parties choose their leaders separately from the public electoral process, through conventions or electronic balloting, with the voting all simultaneous. As well, each province gets a set number of votes or delegates, weighted by population and number of party members, depending on the particular method chosen by the party. So there’s no one province that has extra weight every time in choosing the leader. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/8 "2015-10-28T05:18:34Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > Are there other countries with First-past-the-post voting and also staggered voting? So people have both the incentive and the opportunity to back a winning candidate? > > Don’t know of any, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. It’s not quite the same, but a number of countries have “run-off voting” systems, in which one poll can serve to narrow down the field of candidates to just two, and a second poll decides which of those two will actually be selected. It’s possible to be elected on the first poll (by getting more than 50% of the votes), but more usually the first poll simply qualifies two candidates for the second poll, and voters casting a ballot in the second poll know how each candidate did in the first poll, and also know how much support each of the disqualified candidates obtained, and can hazard a guess as to how their supporters will vote in the run-off. French presidential elections are the best-known example, but there are many others. Every since French presidential election held under this system has gone to a second round of voting to determine the outcome. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/9 "2015-10-28T05:34:18Z")
Yes, but everyone votes at once in those types of systems. You don’t have a system where two small states/provinces/regions have such disproportionate impact on the choice of the candidate for the national party. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/10 "2015-10-28T06:04:58Z")
Why do the other states let New Hampshire and Iowa have such a disproportionate influence on the national election process? Eg why don’t California and Texas change their primary dates to be even earlier than New Hampshire and Iowa? ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/11 "2015-10-28T06:20:11Z")
India. Voting is staggered across the regions. Pakistan also used to until the law was changed for the 1997 election. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/12 "2015-10-28T06:26:25Z")
But is the staggered vote to choose the leader of a party, or the government? The unusual feature of the US primary system is that in some states, by the time you get to vote for the leader for the party, most candidates will have already dropped out. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/13 "2015-10-28T10:06:30Z")
I wonder really how important Iowa and NH are because some candidates bypass them and focus instead on Super Tuesday. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/14 "2015-10-28T11:41:42Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Why do the other states let New Hampshire and Iowa have such a disproportionate influence on the national election process? Eg why don’t California and Texas change their primary dates to be even earlier than New Hampshire and Iowa? Other states have tried, but New Hampshire just moves up its election date in retaliation. New Hampshire voting first is as American a tradition as apple pie or gun mayhem. By now the N.H. election is the 2nd Tuesday of the election year. And they’ve enshrined their advantage into law: > [@](#): > > By New Hampshire state law, the primary is the first in the nation. If another state moves theirs up, New Hampshire responds in kind. New Hampshire State Statute 653:9 stipulates that the primary must take place at least seven days before any “similar election” in any other state. And don’t let anyone fool you. To win the general election, the GOP wants desperately to win Iowa or New Hampshire, each a key swing state and, as I explained in another recent thread though few admitted to understanding it, which matter just as much in the coming election as a much bigger state like Colorado. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/15 "2015-10-28T12:17:32Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > By now the N.H. election is the 2nd Tuesday of the election year. And they’ve enshrined their advantage into law: Clearly another state should hold their primary the day after the presidential election. Thus New Hampshire would be holding the primary for the _next_ president after the one currently being elected. Or perhaps another state should enact the same legislation. Then it would be elephants and donkeys all the way down. :dubious: Here in Oz the election date isn’t enshrined in law, the Prime Minister can request that an election be called almost at whim (subject to a maximum time) so we are mostly spared long term political deluge, as it is never clear when it is a good idea to start. Not only that, given recent politics, we don’t even always know who we might be voting for as Prime Minister at the election. Nor are we assured that they will remain so once elected. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/16 "2015-10-28T12:38:50Z")
New Hampshire and Iowa don’t have all that great a record of picking their party’s eventual Presidential nominees. \*"Despite the bright spotlight that shines on New Hampshire, for all of the proclamations of the state’s importance in the process of choosing nominees, the state’s voters haven’t actually sided with a contested candidate - Republican or Democrat - who’s gone on to win the presidential election that same year since 1988. In recent years, the states voters haven’t even sided with an eventual nominee."\* > **[Reasons the New Hampshire Primary Is so Important](https://www.thoughtco.com/why-the-new-hampshire-primary-is-important-3367520)** > > Find out why the New Hampshire primary is important and how much influence voters in the state really have in presidential elections. The Iowa caucuses have generated such “winners” as Mike Huckabee (2008) and Dick Gephardt. If you crash and burn in these two states it makes it harder to win the nomination, but wins certainly don’t guarantee success. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/17 "2015-10-28T13:15:37Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Other states have tried, but New Hampshire just moves up its election date in retaliation. New Hampshire voting first is as American a tradition as apple pie or gun mayhem. By now the N.H. election is the 2nd Tuesday of the election year. And they’ve enshrined their advantage into law: To this non American it just seems ridiculous. The primary is for a Federal position President of the US, so presumably the Federal government could proclaim that all primaries have to be on the same date? (I’m aware thats not going to happen for X number of reasons, but would the Feds have that power in principal? ) ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/18 "2015-10-28T13:36:24Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > Why do the other states let New Hampshire and Iowa have such a disproportionate influence on the national election process? Eg why don’t California and Texas change their primary dates to be even earlier than New Hampshire and Iowa? Florida tried to change its primary to be first but then both parties changed their rules so that any primaries decided before New Hampshire will lose half of their delegates to the nominating convention. Florida was changed its primary date back to March this time around. The two states are not really as influential as some people think, no non-incumbent GOP nominee has ever won both and only 3 democrat nominees have ever won both. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/19 "2015-10-28T15:18:15Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > To this non American it just seems ridiculous. The primary is for a Federal position President of the US, so presumably the Federal government could proclaim that all primaries have to be on the same date? (I’m aware thats not going to happen for X number of reasons, but would the Feds have that power in principal? ) No, the elections are run by the states. This is embedded in the constitution. The whole system is absurd. Nowadays presidential election campaigns last four years. The recent election campaign in Canada lasted 78 days. This was decided by the government that lost heavily and I daresay won’t be soon repeated. People just got sick and tired of the campaign. And the government attack ads got turned against them. ---
**Author:** ![GoodOmens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@GoodOmens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoodOmens)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912/20 "2015-10-28T15:31:56Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > To this non American it just seems ridiculous. The primary is for a Federal position President of the US, so presumably the Federal government could proclaim that all primaries have to be on the same date? (I’m aware thats not going to happen for X number of reasons, but would the Feds have that power in principal? ) If it makes you feel any better, lots of us Americans think it’s ridiculous too. Remember also that different states have entirely different systems for primaries; some use caucuses instead of elections. The primary system was really developed by the political parties in order to (hopefully) ensure the best candidate for the party, and primaries are not required by the Constitution. Theoretically, either party could simply pick whoever they want to be their candidate without all the primary hoodoo. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-iowa-and-nh-system-of-picking-their-leader/735912.md?page=2)