On June 10th, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a snap election, scheduled just twenty-eight days later on July 7th.
On May 22nd, across the channel in the U.K., former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called for an election to take place forty-four days later on July 4th.
Regardless of what America’s media and political parties may suggest, political campaigns can be relatively short, especially in today’s era of 24-hour news. For politicians, the biggest issue is raising the money to fund the nonstop election cycle, which requires them to have enough money to “run” forever. For the media, it’s easier to report on a horserace that never finishes than to investigate and report on the nuanced complexities of a continent-stretching democracy.
Logistics, Logistics, Logistics
The biggest issue for America’s elections is the logistics: designing, printing, and distributing the ballots.
France and the U.K. each have about 49 million voters; roughly 168 million Americans are registered to vote.
In addition to the electorate size, France and the U.K. benefit from centralized administrative structures. In contrast, the U.S. Constitution delegates election authority to the states, each with its own rules and procedures. Some states require ample time for a public review of the ballot design before they go to press.
Additionally, U.S. voters are more likely to use mail-in ballots than their European counterparts, adding time and complexity to the process.
If the U.S. were to attempt to run an election cycle as swift as the U.K. and France, it would need to make significant changes to the Constitution, increase coordination across the states (many of which are partisan-controlled), and provide massive investments in technology and infrastructure.
And Yet.
Interestingly, the earliest filing deadlines for independent presidential candidates across the 50 states was March 5, 2024 in North Carolina (which seems way too early for contested presidential primaries — Obama didn’t clinch the nomination in 2008 until June 3rd). Most of the other states have deadlines sometime in July or August.
The Democratic Convention will be held between August 19-24 in Chicago. While President Biden has already sewn up the primary process, his performance at the debate two weeks ago sparked calls for him to decline the nomination. Many of his supporters say the media and “the political elites” are driving the controversy, but my friends and I are not members of the media or the political elite, and on the night of the debate, we all wanted President Biden to withdraw.
Despite the ballot logistics, all states will recognize and respond to the activities at the convention. If the Democratic party, as a whole, decides not to support the presumptive nominee and selects someone else instead, the various Secretaries of State will be sure to have the ballots ready in November.
Biden’s Administration Not Up For Debate
Few reality-based Americans can doubt the effectiveness of President Biden’s first term. He accomplished as much as possible, given his Congresses (including the New Do-Nothing Congress) and the Supreme Court his predecessor left him with.
Democrats are not calling for President Biden to remove himself from the nomination process because they are disappointed in him or his accomplishments. Instead, they call for him to be the”bridge president” he told us he would be. After all, his advisors told reporters in 2020 that it was “virtually inconceivable” that he would run in 2024.
Those who oppose a second Trump Administration (and the initiatives proposed by Project 2025) were disappointed when the President announced he would run for reëlection, but calls for him to face a vigorous primary process went unheeded. Sure, few Americans were excited to vote for President Biden again, but with Democratic politicians refusing to challenge him, what were voters to do? We held our nose and voted for the only person in the Democratic primary.
His performance at the debate changed all that. Americans finally saw what it meant to have an octogenarian president, and most of us were horrified. We didn’t suddenly want Donald Trump to become our president, but we also didn’t want an 82-year-old man.
If Not Biden, Then Who?
Assume for a moment that, despite everything he said on Monday, President Biden suddenly changes his mind and announces on Friday (July 12th) that he shall not seek, and will not accept, the nomination of his party for another term as the President of the United States. The Democratic Party would have roughly forty days to determine their nominee.
That’s longer than France and almost as long as the U.K. had.
Pundits have discussed several potential candidates, including:
- Kamala Harris (VP of the USA)
- Gavin Newsom (Gov. of California)
- Gretchen Whitmer (Gov. of Michigan)
- JB Pritzker (Gov. of Illinois)
- Josh Shapiro (Gov. of Pennsylvania)
- Pete Buttigieg (Transportation Secretary of the USA)
- Gina Raimundo (Commerce Secretary of the USA, former Gov. of Rhode Island)
- Wes Moore (Gov. of Maryland)
The lack of a leftist progressive in that list bothers me, but if the goal is to replace President Biden with youth rather than ideology, then finding a center-left member of the executive branch makes sense.
I don’t know enough about any of the governors, but both V.P. Harris and Sec. Buttigieg ran in 2020, and I preferred Buttigieg to Harris. I would also love to see Buttigieg on the debate stage with former President Trump. He’s done a great job of holding his own on conservative television shows and in front of Congress. While his background in finance worries me, and his homosexuality provides plenty of ammunition for anti-gay Americans, I think a majority of Americans are ready to accept a white, male, homosexual, military veteran with a sharp mind and sharp wit as their next president.
A Real Horserace
Regardless of who I’d like to see replace President Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, the hurried process—with no input from non-delegates—would be about as exciting as you might think. The networks would hurry out a debate or two between candidates who announce; meanwhile, investigative journalists would dig deep into backgrounds, voting records, speeches, etc.
The reporting would be breathless. The news cycle would be a flurry. And it would all have an actual end date that most of us could accept.
Long, drawn-out elections are terrible for democracy, but forty days? That would actually be fun.
And the result wouldn’t be terrible. It’d be electrifying. And it would—without a doubt—result in a Democratic candidate more capable of running our country than Donald Trump.
Fine, Biden. But This Is Bullshit.
In the Fall of 2020, I had a sticker on the back of my car that read, “Fine, Biden. But This Is Bullshit.” When the Democrats nominate President Biden for reëlection in August and he stumbles through his acceptance speech, I’ll be disappointed.
I’ll vote for him in November because reëlecting former President Trump is, quite simply, the worst thing that could happen to America. So yes, I’ll vote for President Biden, but I’ll be disappointed that I have to.
Unfortunately, there may be nothing more American than that.