America’s primary election system has fatal flaws. If the Election of 2008 has revealed anything, it is that the staggered primary system, where a few states have their primaries before everyone else, needs to be changed.

It is morally indefensible that a miniscule segment of the electorate disproportionally influences the race for president because some state legislatures declare it so. The current structure of the American primaries disenfranchises most Americans.

Those states which vote before Super Tuesday (the day, February 5 this year, when states representing over half of national delegates will vote) narrow the field of candidates left for which everyone else can vote. After a disappointing showing in Iowa, Senators Chris Dodd, D-Conn. and Joe Biden, D-Del. removed themselves from the race. Governor Bill Richardson did the same after New Hampshire. Dennis Kucinich, still running (and recounting in New Hampshire), has such low poll numbers that networks consistently bar him from debates. What was a field of eight candidates (sorry Tom Vilsack) has narrowed to three, with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton really considered the only viable candidates.

For Republicans, the situation remains more fluid since four serious candidates (of an original field of eight, including Alan Keyes) could still secure the nomination.

Voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, and Florida have cemented Mike Huckabee (Bill Clinton with a Bible), Mitt Romney (the candidate who makes John Kerry look like he has conviction), John McCain (the anti-establishment establishment man who could win it all) and Rudy Giuliani (a dash of Romney with a pound of 9/11) as their party’s leading candidates. Ron Paul, who received more votes in New Hampshire and Michigan than Giuliani and seems to be the only candidate to have actually read the 9/11 commission report, has been the primary victim of this cycle’s frontloading.

While all states voting before Super Tuesday have created this problem, Iowa and New Hampshire, which went first and second, highlight the biased nature of our national primaries. Iowa has three million residents (30th most in America) and is 91% white. New Hampshire has 1.2 million residents (46th in America) and is 97% white. America has 300 million residents and is 74% white. In other words, Iowa and New Hampshire have 1.5% of American’s population and are much more homogenous, but their preferences cut the field of candidates in half.

Of course, one cannot forget the role of our hyperbolic media, which takes every small change and proclaims it monumental. For example, everyone talked about Hillary Clinton being out of the race after coming in second in Iowa. She received 14 delegates to Obama’s 15, yet a candidate needs 2,025 delegates to win. One delegate almost cost Clinton, whom the same people exalted as invincible months earlier, the election.

A cold white state and a colder, whiter one have enormously limited the options of tens of millions of other voters.

There is no perfect voting system (except for dictatorship), but we can find one better than this one. A (probably beguiling) alternative is to have all the primaries on one day. A bad side effect: this would increase the pressure on candidates to run big-money campaigns, probably limiting competition.

Alternatively, approximately half of eligible voters could vote on one day, the other half soon after; this would still favor moneyed candidates. Or, voting could be organized around regions; this would still discriminate for voters with interests, like farm subsidies, tied to specific regions. (Whatever happens, the federal government must mandate it so that states cannot game the system to their advantage.)

The point is that one can easily envision alternatives to our broken system which do not privilege a miniscule, homogenous group over the rest of America.

I, for one, was going to vote for Bill Richardson and will now cast a ballot for Obama.

Opinion polls interpret this as support, but it is really frustration at the lack of a better candidate.

Zachary is a senior in Arts & Sciences and a staff columnist. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].

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