POLITICS - Change the Presidential Nomination Process?

"'Americans Elect' Group Challenges U.S. Presidential Primary Process" PBS Newshour 8/22/2011

Excerpt from transcript

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): To presidential politics here at home and one group's effort to upend the way candidates for the Oval Office are nominated.

Judy Woodruff brings us the latest attempt to push America away from the dominant two-party system.

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): No third-party candidate has won a U.S. presidential election since 1860.

But with unemployment staying high, worries about another recession, and mounting public disapproval of Democrats and Republicans alike, could voters be frustrated enough with Washington to upend the way they select their president in 2012?

Well, one new group thinks so. Americans Elect is a nonprofit organization that wants to change the nominating process by holding the first ever nonpartisan political convention in cyberspace. Voters can weigh in on their top issues and use an online voting system to nominate a candidate to place on the presidential ballot in all 50 states.

Well, for more on the effort, we're joined now by Elliot Ackerman. He's chief operating officer for Americans Elect and a decorated veteran of both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. And former Clinton adviser and Democratic pollster Douglas Schoen, he sits on the group's board of advisers.

And it's great to have you both.

DOUGLAS SCHOEN, Democratic pollster: Thank you so much.

ELLIOT ACKERMAN, Americans Elect: Thanks.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Elliot Ackerman, to you first. Our political parties have been around since the birth of the country, practically. We have a stable system of government. Why circumvent them?

ELLIOT ACKERMAN: Well, I think what's important to realize is, this isn't another political party. This isn't a third party. This is a second nominating process.

And the vision here is that, in November of 2012, when American voters go to the poll, there will be a third ticket that they have directly nominated themselves.

So, at Americans Elect, we will be holding the first ever nonpartisan online nominating convention. Any registered voter can be a delegate to that convention. And the ticket that comes out of the convention is going to be on the ballot in all 50 states.

COMMENT: There is something missing in this interview, and I'm disappointed that Judy Woodruff missed it. The American Elect effort is online/computer.

Problem is NOT everyone has a computer, some only have access at their job, and others have never used a computer, so this effort is lopsided toward savvy computer users. Not exactly "the American people" as American Elect envisions, a sector of voters are left out (non-computer users).