5 Regional Primaries, Joint Poll Closings Backed

WASHINGTON —  The Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday approved legislation that would establish a series of regional primaries and institute uniform poll closing times for future presidential elections.

The proposal would establish five regional primaries to be held at three-week intervals from the middle of March to the beginning of June in presidential election years. The Federal Election Commission would hold a lottery to determine the order in which the five regions would hold their primaries.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Alan J. Dixon (D-Ill.), was approved by voice vote and sent to the Senate floor.

“Our country’s presidential primary system is seriously flawed, with one of its greatest drawbacks being the unusual amount of influence granted to the states holding the earliest primaries,” Dixon said. “We need a new system of primaries so influence is equally dispersed throughout the country.”

Five Regions Described

The bill would divide the country into five regions. Region 1 would include New England, New York and New Jersey. Region 2 would consist of the industrial Midwest to the Mississippi River. Region 3 would include the Southern states. Region 4 would reach west from the Mississippi through the Great Plains, plus Texas. Region 5 would extend from the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, including Hawaii and Alaska.

Each region would have roughly the same number of presidential electors and Republican and Democratic convention delegates. Populations in each region range from 45 million to about 54 million.

The committee also approved a measure in which polls in the 1992 presidential election would close at 10 p.m. EST, 9 p.m. CST, 8 p.m. MST and 7 p.m. PST.

The bill is designed to stop network projections of election results while polls are still open in Western states. In 1980, hours before West Coast polls closed, the networks projected Ronald Reagan as the winner over Jimmy Carter.