Originally Posted by erikvv

How about abolishing the primaries and move to a system with all candidates, democrat republican and other, and have multiple rounds? First round everyone can join, second round all smaller candidates who together had less votes than the biggest candidates drop out, third round same etc. I think that is similar to how they do it in France.

Example:
Results popular vote round one:
Washington 23%
Adams 20%
Jefferson 18%
Madison 12%
Monroe 8%
Jackson 6%
Van Buren 4%
Harrison 3%
Other 6%

Now the candidates from bottom to top with combined less than 23% drop out. That leaves 5 candidates in the next round:
Adams 32%
Washington 28%
Jefferson 21%
Monroe 14%
Madison 5%

Next round leaves 3 candidates:
Washington 52%
Adams 32%
Jefferson 16%

Washington has over 50% so he won.

I think that a system like this will persuade more people to vote for the smaller candidates and give those a better chance because in the first round your vote is never 'wasted', after all there will likely be another round (most elections will take 2 or 3 rounds I estimate). What do you think?