New Hampshire announces an "early" Democratic primary

Politics & Elections
1

I didn’t see an all-inclusive 2024 Primary/Caucus thread, and didn’t want to start one.

The New Jersey Democratic Party has announced it will hold its 2024 primary on January 23. However, this is in violation of the party’s current rules, that say that no state can hold a primary before South Carolina’s on February 3. Note that NJ doesn’t have much choice; its state laws require that its primary be first.

According to the 2024 Democratic Party Delegate Selection Rules, if a state has a “too early” primary, then two things happen:

  1. The state loses half of its pledged delegates, and all of its superdelegates, although remember that superdelegates cannot vote on the first Presidential ballot anyway.
  2. Any candidate who “campaigns” in the state before or during the early primary/caucus will not receive any pledged delegates from it. For purposes of this rule, “campaigning” includes, but is not limited to:
  • Putting their name on the ballot
  • Not taking action to remove their name from the ballot
  • Purchasing any sort of advertising that reaches “a significant percentage of the voters” in the state
  • Hiring campaign workers in the state
  • Opening an office in the state
  • Making any public appearances or holding any news conferences in the state
  • Coordinating volunteers in the state

Note that Biden’s name will not be on the ballot, although there is talk of a campaign to get people to write in his name, which supposedly would count. There is one possible problem with that; if New Hampshire is anything like California, a candidate has to specifically apply to be eligible to be a write-in candidate, which might be considered campaigning.
Then again, I doubt that half of New Hampshire’s delegates are going to make that much of a difference in the final result, and it shouldn’t affect momentum as most people in other states will know why Biden didn’t win. What almost always happens with early states is, the minute it gets to the point where that state’s delegates won’t affect the result, all of them will be invited to the convention.

2

I think you mean New Hampshire.

3

So do I. Anybody know who to ask to change a thread title? I know it can be done…

4

At this point, can we just make the parties pay for and run their own damned primaries and caucuses?

5

The Republicans in Missouri and Idaho are doing just that. They claim it’s to save money, but more than a few skeptics think the real reason is to make it harder for any other candidate to mount an effective challenge against Donald Trump.

In Missouri, polling places normally are open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on election days, with a period of absentee voting leading up to then. But participants in the GOP county caucuses must attend a 10 a.m. meeting and be prepared to stay for a while.

“The timetable makes it harder,” acknowledged Missouri Republican Party Chairman Nick Myers, who had urged lawmakers to reinstate a primary. “Let’s say you’re a nurse, a first responder, you’re on shift that day, you cannot get off at 10 a.m. to go to your local caucus, then you’re not going to be able to participate.”

6

You can request changes by flagging the OP. Click on the three dots to the left of the Reply button, which will bring up a flag icon. Click on that. Or just click on the Flag icon at the bottom of the thread.

7

My sister said it’s weird explaining this to my ten year old nephew.

“So usually Billy a president gets two terms and usually voters get to vote for either the R or D candidate. Except in New Hampshire where we live and President Biden won’t be on the ballot. That’s because our govt is punishing the Ds or choosing an early election day.”

“Oh Mom you’re messing with me - that’s not how they explained it in social science class.”